GENERAL STRIKE IN PORTUGAL

LISBON (AFP) – Portugal's first mass general strike in more than two decades brought the country to a halt Wednesday to protest spending cuts the government says are vital to avoid financial disaster.

Both public and private sector workers joined the one-day strike, which follows similar stoppages in countries such as Greece and France, as governments are forced into unpopular cost-cutting programmes.

The head of the main UGT union, Joao Proenca, said, "It is the biggest strike ever staged," after workers ranging from teachers, train drivers and firemen to doctors and entertainers all walked out.

Manuel Carvalho da Silva, the head of the major CGTP syndicate, estimated the number of strikers at three million, but no official figures were available.

The transport sector was crippled, with no flights taking off or landing at any airport. More than three-quarters of train services and 60 percent of bus services were cancelled, operators said.

Lisbon's metro system was closed for the day, along with the ferries linking the two sides of the Tagus.

The strike, the first time since 1988 that private and public sector workers had come together, also hit banks, media and petrol deliveries, while hospitals were treating emergency cases only and thousands of schools were closed.

Even the police were refusing to issue parking tickets.

Union leaders said the strike had a "massive impact" on the private sector, with less than 10 percent of the workforce turning up at Volkswagen's Autoeuropa plant near the northern city of Porto.

"The mobilisation of workers is enormous," said Manuel Carvalho da Silva, the head of the major CGTP syndicate.

But Labour Minister Helena Andre claimed the impact on the private sector was small, saying that electricity demand had not fallen, while witnesses said small businesses were unaffected.

Earlier Andre told TSF radio, "All Portuguese people understand that the government's margin of manoeuvre to change policy and row back on the proposals in the 2011 budget is practically nil."

"Without the measures we have already taken and those which will come into force next year, the consequences for the Portuguese and the economy will be a great deal worse," she said.

"We are seeing attacks every day on the Portuguese public debt and their negative consequences for the economy, and therefore we are calling on all Portuguese to unite in order to overcome this moment of difficulty."

The strike began on the stroke of midnight with union members setting up picket lines across the country, including outside Lisbon's international airport.

Scuffles broke out between police and union activists at a picket outside a postal sorting office in Lisbon, although no charges were filed.

Two women were injured when the manager of a hypermarket ran his car into a picket line in the north of the country. He was arrested.

However Lisbon metro driver Jose Marques told AFP that the public understood that it was not a strike over wages but to defend "everyone's rights".

The unions' anger has been stoked by government plans for a drastic round of spending cuts and tax rises worth some five billion euros (6.85 billion dollars), which are currently being pushed through parliament.

The package of cuts is intended to reduce the deficit from 7.3 percent of GDP to 4.6 percent next year in a bid to quell growing international unease over the state of Portugal's finances.

The main opposition party said on Tuesday it would not block the government's 2011 budget, paving the way for its adoption on Friday.

But the unions say the cuts are intolerable, particularly from a Socialist government.

"We cannot accept that the first, second and third priority of Portugal is the deficit," UGT chief Proenca said, referring to the country's 10.9 percent unemployment rate, an all-time high.

Portuguese bond yields ticked up seven basis points on Wednesday to 6.799 percent, following sharper rises earlier this week amid concerns over deficit-reduction efforts.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates has rejected suggestions that his country is next in line after Ireland to receive a European Union bailout, saying that Portugal did not need financial aid.