"The Bank was born, grew and lives at the expense of the dedicated, zealous and compliant workers of the Post Office, who gave everything they had to expand a valuable heritage that, unfortunately, began to be squandered from the first day of the privatization of the Post Office", states the CT in a press release.

For this structure, "the workers were, and continue to be betrayed in their effort and in their mission to continue to 'deliver the letter to Garcia', despite the scarce human and material resources at their disposal".

On Tuesday, in an interview with Bloomberg, the CEO of CTT, João Bento, admitted to selling Banco CTT in its entirety, stating that the Post Office is considering "all possibilities" and that a possible move would allow the company to focus on its main 'core', continuing to offer a wide range of 'online' services through its network of stores.

Although stating that there is still nothing concrete in terms of a potential sale, the CEO said that his "preference" would be for CTT to continue to be a minority shareholder in the bank, since it will operate in the Post Office's network of stores.

In the press release issued on Wednesday night, the CT of CTT says it has "no knowledge" about this situation, "other than what it read in the media", and emphasizes that, although on the day the news was released it was "in a meeting with company officials", the fact is that "nothing was communicated about the matter".

"If the news is true, we are against the sale of that asset", argues the organization representing the Post Office workers, arguing that "the government has the duty and obligation to clarify all Portuguese people about the future of the public and universal postal service which, like other services, are going from bad to worse in terms of quality of service".

Additionally, it states that it is necessary to "reassure CTT workers, giving them the guarantee that jobs will never be at risk" and that "investments in the modernization of equipment and services will be preserved".

In the CT's understanding, the "tactical and underlying idea behind the privatization of the Post Office was always to obtain a license to operate in the banking sector, simultaneously with the financial products already marketed by CTT", and "without the certainty of obtaining that permission, the privatization of CTT would never happen".

Regarding the rapid growth of Banco CTT, it emphasizes that it was only possible because it "used a network of stores with nationwide coverage", "took advantage of the knowledge of the Post Office workers", "did not pay rent for the use of the facilities" and "did not bear current expenses" such as paper, electricity, water and equipment.

At the same time, the bank "took advantage of the extended opening hours, which coincided with those of the postal service", "did not comply with the many competition rules, in the granting of cards without an annual fee and in the opening of accounts", and "maintained the policy of low wages, with recourse to the polyvalence of workers in the postal area".

"It is our conviction that the 'owners' of CTT want to get rid of the postal sector, which is public and universal in nature, and embark on the path of high finance and express orders", considers the CT, recalling that "the CEO of CTT has already stated in an interview that the business would turn to other areas of activity and that, in relation to letters, 'they would deliver a few every now and then'".

"Unless the Portuguese people lose interest and, who knows, even give up on a public postal service, it is time to question the Government about the future of the Portuguese Post Office and what plan there is to give continuity and certainty to a constitutionally established precept", it adds.

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