Trade unionists and employee representatives from across Europe met in Lisbon at the meeting of the European Left Party network. The current global crisis and its consequences for the transport sector have been discussed with a focus on the processes of forced privatization of airports and ports across Europe.
Eduardo Chagas, Secretary General of the European Federation for Transport, emphasized the need for joint work between unions in all European countries in order to increase mobilization through negotiation and political pressure.
Isychos Costas, Greek Synaspismos party, said that the privatization of deepwater harbours in Greece is being followed by a process of militarization through the establishment of bilateral agreements with Israel and NATO. The Greek state was thus deprived not only of national and strategic installations; but is also offering a guaranteed income to international consortia.
These militarization measures are taken with no prospect of public use of the facilities of several strategic ports in Greece, on lease without public scrutiny.
The parallels between the Greek and Portuguese situation were also discussed. In just two years Greek citizens have suffered three waves of wage cuts, starting with 3.7and then up to an average of 30%, revealing the possible political aims of the Socrates government in Portugal.

Miguel Portas defined the setting of a common strategy to enable coordination between social forces and unions as the main target for 2011, overcoming differences in scale between the problems of each country, and the setting out of a positive agenda and proposals for action that goes beyond limited resistance to neoliberal attacks. The European citizens' initiative, established by the Lisbon treaty, is a tool through which we can join this struggle in 2011, the Left Bloc MEP said.