Work in the Portuguese shipyards of Lisnave

For nearly three decades, the workers from Lisnave’s Lisbon shipyards staged some of the most important social conflicts in Portugal. From 1967 to 1984, Lisnave was the locus of Portugal’s highest concentration of workers (at its peak it had 9,000 permanent employees), and a model in the relationships between private economic groups and the state. The history of Lisnave’s modern growth mirrors trends in the world market for ships, particularly the growth in size and scale of oil tankers consequent upon the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967, the OPEC oil crises of 1973-1974, the recession thereafter, and subsequent restructuring of the shipbuilding industry by relocation of the bulk of shipbuilding production to East Asian countries. ²