Aryanews- A strike called by Portugal's civil servants for Thursday is a cry for attention that even the strikers believe will barely register in the midst of a deep economic downturn and the highest unemployment in 25 years.
Years of economic underperformance during the good times before the global bust meant Portugal was already struggling before the recession hit, and Greece's fiscal crisis has made it worse by pointing the spotlight on other weak euro zone members.
The Portuguese are only too aware of their country's troubles as they follow Greek and Spanish comrades in taking industrial action to demand their rights. Portugal is already western Europe's poorest country.
"It's bad, very bad, and getting worse every day for the people," former construction worker Joaquim dos Santos, 61, said as he left an employment centre in Lisbon's lower-middle class Benfica area where clothes hang drying on the windows of shabby, graffiti-covered five-storey buildings.
He lives off 180 euros ($245) monthly social security payments, which are hardly enough to buy food.
But the neatly dressed, grey-haired man has no illusions about social or political changes, and prefers to stick to his meagre but certain subsistence, until he gets a job. "More strikes don't help with anything, they just make things worse. If there'll be another government -- it'll be the same as now or worse," he said.
The Portuguese temperament of resignation reflected in their melancholic Fado music has been fed in recent decades as the country slipped down European league tables of growth, wealth and income.
Even those who support the labour unions' struggle urge caution so as not to worsen the already hard economic situation.
"We always have to stand up for our rights, but I really don't think it's a good time to rock the boat with big strikes," said car salesman Edgar Cardoso, 29, praising the government's attempts to stabilise the economy battered by the global crisis.