"Hundreds of people took to the streets of Lisbon in a massive protest against the Luis Montenegro government's proposed labour reform package. Footage from Saturday shows crowds marching through streets, carrying banners with slogans such as 'Down with labour package, a better life is possible,' 'against labour package' or 'for higher wages and rights.' "Today we are once again in the streets responding to the will of the workers to continue the struggle… To continue the fight against the labour package," said Tiago Oliveira, Secretary-General of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers. The 'Trabalho XXI' package, presented in July 2025 by the government, includes more than 100 proposed changes to labour legislation. Among them are measures to ease dismissals, expand the use of fixed-term contracts and revise rules on working hours and parental flexibility. While the government argues these changes are necessary to modernise the economy and 'flexibilise' the market to compete globally, unions counter that the reforms would weaken job security and undermine collective bargaining rights. The protest follows a general strike held in December 2025. "We are talking about a labour package that increases the precariousness of labour relations, that deregulates working hours, that attacks trade union freedom, that attacks the right to strike, that facilitates dismissals, that increasingly weakens labour relations… We are demanding its withdrawal by the government," Oliveira added. The mobilisation, organised by the CGTP union confederation, marks the latest escalation in an ongoing dispute over workers’ rights. "The measures included in it will be highly detrimental to workers' rights, including those in the public sector! Specifically, the right to strike, particularly in the education sector," said Daniel Pereira Martins, Coordinator of STOP (Union of all education professionals). Pereira called the reform 'a major civilisational setback for workers’ rights' and added that the union could not fail to take part in the demonstration, suggesting that 'a new general strike may be necessary' to prevent the package from advancing."