The stoppage was convened by the National Union of Local and Regional Administration Workers (STAL) and will mobilise workers from the Trajouce factories, in the municipality of Cascais, and Mafra, representing around 300 people.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, Carlos Fernandes, from STAL, explained that the main reasons for this stoppage are linked to demands for salary improvements and a "lack of responses from the company's management".

"We have been negotiating a company agreement for more than three years, in an informal way, without the presence of any member of the board of directors, to unblock the main demands of the workers. The board of directors does not respond to us", he said.

In addition to salary issues, Carlos Fernandes referred that Tratolixo workers also intend to establish 35 hours of weekly work for all.

"In the factory, this discrimination is greater, because the administrative sector works 35 hours and the operational sector 40", he pointed out, adding that he hopes that with the stoppage the company's administration and the four municipalities covered will be able to understand the seriousness of the situation.

The union predicts that the strike could cause constraints in the waste reception process in the municipalities of Sintra, Oeiras, Cascais, and Mafra.

Tratolixo is a certified inter-municipal company, 100% owned by AMTRES -- Association of Municipalities of Cascais, Mafra, Oeiras, and Sintra for the treatment of solid waste and responsible for the public service of the treatment of urban waste produced by the more than 800,000 inhabitants of the municipalities in this urban waste management system.