The mayor of Praia da Vitória, Vânia Ferreira, guarantees that since the beginning of the restructuring process of the Cooperative Praia Cultural, which began in 2022, the municipality has wanted a solution with the involvement of the Regional Government that would safeguard all the jobs.
Vânia Ferreira says that the executive’s “timing” to open up this possibility is now “tight” and that the 30 or so workers who could be made redundant by the end of this month can only be internalized in the municipality with financial support from the Regional Government.
“It has always been our understanding that this situation should have been supported by the Regional Government, so that all these people wouldn’t have their jobs jeopardized,” Vânia Ferreira told DI yesterday.
The mayor’s statements come after the regional secretary for Finance, Planning, and Public Administration, Duarte Freitas, stated in the Azorean Parliament on Friday that the government is available to “help resolve” the workers’ situation.
“We are sensitive to these issues. We are on the side of solving the problems. We’ll be able to find a solution with the Praia da Vitória City Council,” assured Duarte Freitas.
He was speaking during the debate on a draft resolution presented by the Left Bloc, which aims to integrate workers in the process of being made redundant into the regional public administration. The recommendation was approved with PS, PSD, CDS/PP, PPM, Bloco de Esquerda, PAN, Chega voting in favor, IL abstaining, and the independent deputy voting against.
“The City Council has always been open to this situation, not least because several contacts have been made and steps taken in this direction,” Vânia Ferreira stressed.

The mayor of Praia da Vitória stresses that “the process is already underway” and that “the reason for it is the lack of sustainability on the part of the municipality to pay the Praia Cultural Cooperative to maintain all these jobs”.
She admits this financial support could come from the Regional Government “just utilizing a transfer, based on some protocol, some contract that could be drawn up.” However, says Vânia Ferreira, until yesterday, there had been no formal contact from the Azorean government.
“There was an informal contact from the (regional finance) secretary, after the vote, in which I told him that this recommendation had been made to the regional government and not to the city council. Financially, we have no way of sustaining this situation. We can’t stop the process unless the regional government takes a stand,” he says.
In the meantime, a meeting has been scheduled with the workers at risk of redundancy. “It’s a process that would be closed by the end of October. We’ve been struggling with this issue since last year, and the regional government has always been aware of it. I want to believe that if the Regional Government had understood and had the conditions to act, it could have done so by now,” reiterates Vânia Ferreira.
The resolution approved in the Azorean Parliament recommends that the Regional Government survey the needs of workers in the regional public administration services based on Terceira Island.


The executive should also contact the Praia da Vitória City Council “in order to inform it of its willingness to authorize the integration, through a mobility process, of workers in the process of being made redundant in the regional public administration”.
Vânia Ferreira admits to “some doubts” about how the process would be conducted: “This mobility process, after being linked to the municipality and the civil service, does not oblige people to accept mobility to any other sector of the public administration.”
However, the mayor of Praia da Vitória points out that “from the moment there is a way to justify it”, the council has always been “on the side of the people.”
Out of 178 employees, 92 will be internalized in the municipality. Previously, in the first phase, 35 people had joined the mutual agreement.
Of the 36 workers to be made redundant in this second phase of restructuring, seven have since also signed termination agreements by mutual agreement, which brings the number of people in a redundancy situation to 29.
Once again, Vânia Ferreira criticizes when the Regional Government extends its hand to the Praia da Vitória City Council. “It creates a social injustice here that I don’t think is at all to the liking of those who signed the mutual agreement. We never exerted any pressure. Those who signed it did so of their own free will, recognizing that we had a serious problem. The situation has changed and they may feel wronged in this process.”


The redundancy process is in its final stages, and the last letters have been sent to the workers. The deadline for finding a solution is “definitely” the end of this month, guarantees Vânia Ferreira.
“It’s not a desirable situation for anyone. In no way are we doing this on a personal basis. It’s a necessary situation for the municipality’s sustainability,” said the mayor.

In Diário Insular, José Lourenço-Director

Translator and Novidades Editor’s note: for a small city like Praia da Vitória, 36 employees is a considerable amount of families and affects the entire city.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.