Help Payday Go to Portugal to Cover Strike Wave Changing Austerity Debate

A massive series of strikes in Portugal has raised opposition to austerity. (AP)

By: Mike Elk February 17, 2019

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Earlier this year, a reader helped arrange for Payday to go to Portugal, where we are going to cover the growing strike wave against austerity there.

As many of you know, I actually speak Portuguese pretty fluently from time in journalism school in Brasil.

After covering the teachers’ strike on the ground in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona,  North Carolina, and Virginia, I am excited to get overseas to understand how global public sector workers are changing the conversation in Europe.

In December alone, there were over 50 strikes in Portugal from workers in various sectors protesting austerity and privatization.

These strikes have served to effectively push an anti-austerity measure. As part of an EU financial bailout of Portugal in 2014, Portugal was forced to privatize many of its’ public institutions including the Postal Service.

This Wednesday in Lisbon, the Portuguese Parliament is expected to vote on legislation that would re-nationalize the Postal Service.

Payday Report is going to Portugal and going to primarily reporting, but I am also gonna check out some sites.

Unfortunately, a $1068 freelance check is late and I find myself facing budget pressure right before the trip. Fortunately, many of my readers have gotten my back to help cover the cost.

So once again, I ask for your help in telling a story that other publications may overlook: the wave of strikes gripping Portugal and changing the conversation on austerity.

Help Us Reach Our Goal

$587 / $1,068

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About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. A native of Pittsburgh, Elk grew up in a UE union family. Elk was the only American reporter in the room with Lula on the morning of the election & traveled with him to the Oval Office. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and attended journalism school at PUC-Rio de Janeiro. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburgh fluently. His email is [email protected]

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