“The works council received official notification from the US Government [that it was] going ahead with the reduction,” Bruno Nogueira, the president of the council, which represents local employees at the base, told Lusa News Agency.
He said the notification was issued on Monday night and that on Tuesday morning the works council had held a meeting with the US command at the base.
Nogueira did not reveal the wording of the memorandum, but said that it contained little more than notice of the scaling back of the workforce, which has been expected for some time.
According to the works council president, it remains unclear how many jobs will go. According to the calculations of the council, only 380 of the current 800-strong local civilian workforce is set to stay.
A survey carried out by the US command, completed by more than 90 percent of the local employees, found that 412 were ready to take voluntary redundancy, while a further 125 were undecided.
But according to Nogueira, these figures are “merely indicative” and may “not reflect reality”, given that the survey was not binding.
At the last meeting of the Permanent Bilateral Commission between Portugal and the US, which took place in Lisbon on 11 February, it was decided that an extraordinary meeting should be held in Washington to deal exclusively with the Lajes issue, above all the employment questions.
According to Nogueira, it was not expected that the announcement would come so soon. Under Portuguese law, the works council now has 30 days to react to the announcement.
The scaling back of the US presence in the Azores is part of a broader overhaul of the country’s defence commitments worldwide.