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Added on the 31/03/2020 14:49:16 - Copyright : France 24 EN
A day after 91 people were arrested for trespassing, French police are checking vehicles at the entrance to Rungis wholesale food market, a vital distribution hub for the capital region's 12 million people. French farmers' anger continues unabated, and the crisis is taking centre stage at a European summit to be attended by French President Emmanuel Macron. IMAGES
Lisbon, Sep 18 (EFE), (Camera: Paula Fernández).- The pandemic has not only caused infections and deaths in Portugal but it has also lead to poverty. Thousands of workers with stable jobs who overnight they stopped earning money and now have to turn to charity to survive.According to data from the Portuguese Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, in July there were 407,000 people registered in the unemployment centres, 37% more than a year ago, although the figure is highly questioned by economists, unions and politicians who point out that the real unemployment rate is even higher.FOOTAGE OF FOOD BANK IN LISBON AND FAMOES PARISH IN ODIVELAS. SOUNDBITES OF:-ISABEL JONET, PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE FEDERATION OF FOOD BANKS: "In two months we received more than 60,000 people asking for help. It is a huge increase, incredibly huge. It happened overnight. We started to receive requests and more requests. There were days when we received 2,000 help requests. It was very distressing because we did not see that entities were able to respond to all these people.""They are people who had never experienced poverty and suddenly, from one moment to another, they were left with nothing. They had no money, not even a euro because they had nowhere to work. Their workplaces were closed. For example, we are talking about hairdressers, personal trainers, physical therapists, dentists, beauticians, domestic workers, street vendors, taxi drivers, Uber drivers ... "."A fifth of the population lives in a situation of poverty. This kind of poverty was traditionally more linked to age, people with low retirement pensions. A set of measures was implemented, such as the solidarity supplement for the elderly or the increase in lower pensions, but we still have people with pensions below 180 euros a month."-SOFIA MARTINS, COORDINATOR OF THE FOOD BANK AT THE FAMOES PARISH COMMUNITY CENTRE:"Before the pandemic, until March, the food bank helped 48 families from Pontinha and Famões. Nowadays, in August, they are about 140 families. There was a fairly significant increase due to the pandemic."-PAULO PINHEIRO, DIRECTOR OF THE FAMOES PARISH COMMUNITY CENTRE:"Poverty is not only visible, but it is always a kind of iceberg. There is a type of poverty outside, visible, and people take the initiative and turn to help. But there is also a group of families to whom it is very difficult to help because it is ashamed poverty, they are not used to it or they do not want to say publicly that they are overcoming (financial) difficulties."-ANA PAULA, NEIGHBOUR WHO HAS TURNED TO THE FOOD BANK:"My husband and my baby tested positive and I had to stay at home to take care of them. I was laid-off at work and during the pandemic, I could not leave home since I had to self-isolate after tested positive. I sought help by calling the City Council and the community centre."
La Habra, Jun 10 (EFE/EPA).- Food supply workers and representatives from US labor union Teamsters on Wednesday staged a national protest with demonstrations planned in almost 30 cities across the US to demand more safety measures and better health protection following thousands of deaths in their industry during the pandemic(Camera: EUGENE GARCIA)SHOTLIST: UNION MEMBERS PROTESTING OUTSIDE THE CVS DISTRIBUTION CENTER IN LA HABRA, CALIFORNIA, US.
French farmers block traffic around Paris's famed Arc de Triomphe monument with tractors and bales of hay. IMAGES
French Economy Minister, Bruno Le Maire, and Agriculture Minister, Marc Fesneau, chair a committee to monitor the trade negotiations between supermarkets and their suppliers, which are intended to protect producers' incomes, against a backdrop of strong mobilisation by farmers across France. IMAGES
Angry French farmers dump tyres, apples, manure and soil in front of warehouses of retailler Supermarket U in the southwestern town of Sainte-Colombe-en-Bruilhois. IMAGES
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