The Portuguese Association of Freight Forwarders, confronted once again with the suspension of loading and unloading of ships in the Port of Lisbon, cannot but come to publicly demand accountability of all parties involved in the failure of negotiations on the new collective agreement, which should regulate labour relations between port operators and the Lisbon dockers.
 
The parties involved - dockers, port operators and government - should clarify once and for all, in a serious and transparent way, what is behind these strikes and this failure, that has been dragging on for more than four years.

Considering the anormous damage that the decision to suspend cargo handling operations entails for the market and for the national economy, the Portuguese Freight Forwarders Association demands to know what interests justify that dockers, port operators and government should let the port of Lisbon slowly languish until it has to close. The ineptitude and irresponsibility - of all stakeholders in the negotiations - costs dearly and it is time to act constructively so as to ensure that there is a future for the port of the capital city, for its workers and for the companies working with this port.
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On the other hand, considering that it is unacceptable that a port with the importance and weight of the port of Lisbon should be suspended without any minimal services being provided, the Portuguese Freight Forwarders Association joins the Association of Portuguese Shipping Agents in the appeal filed today to the Minister of Sea, so that minimal services are decreed, allowing the removal from the port of refrigerated containers with perishable goods and ensuring minimal services for the autonomous regions, similarly to what has been done in previous strikes, thus reducing the losses inherent in the suspension of operations at the port of Lisbon.