Portugal civil servants strike against austerity

* Workers hope to send message to government

* Strike could be biggest in years in Portugal

By Axel Bugge

LISBON, March 4 (Reuters) - Portuguese civil servants walk off their jobs on Thursday, hoping to close schools, courts and hospitals in a protest strike against austerity measures imposed by the Socialist government.

The strike could be the biggest in years in Portugal and will test the minority government, which has been pressed by financial markets to cut spending after Greece's fiscal crisis turned the focus on weak euro zone members.

Greece targeted civil servants, the rich and the church on Wednesday in a sweeping new 4.8 billion euro ($6.5 billion) austerity programme designed to secure European help to tackle its crippling debt burden. [ID:nLDE6220NA]

Portugal's unions say they have had years of worsening conditions as public pensions and other benefits were cut by the government, which this year froze public wages in its effort to win investor confidence by cutting the budget deficit.

"There is immense discontent which you can see in the way workers behave and that means there will be enormous turnout in the strike," said Manuel Carvalho da Silva, leader of the 725,000-strong General Confederation of Portuguese Workers.

The Iberian country of 10 million people is recovering from its worst economic downturn in decades and unemployment, at 10 percent, is the highest in a quarter of a century.

The strike, which comes on the heels of industrial action in Spain and Greece, raises pressure on the government just as it prepares a long-term budget plan to cut the budget deficit to below 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2013.

Portuguese unions have threatened more strikes if the government extends the freeze on civil servant wages beyond this year -- something which has been under consideration.

The strike is the latest test for the government, which is losing popularity due to allegations that it tried to interfere with the media.

A poll released this weekend showed the number of Portuguese who have a positive image of Prime Minister Jose Socrates fell to 29.4 percent in February from 40.3 percent in January.

Union officials have not given precise numbers of how many workers they expect to strike. But they said it would kick off on Wednesday night with rubbish collectors in four major cities.

In the last large strike in Portugal, in November 2007, civil servants walked off their jobs for a day to protest against a lower-than-expected pay rise of 2.1 percent for 2008.

At the time, unions said 80 percent of the 700,000-strong public work force joined the strike and the government said just 20 percent joined.

(Additional reporting by Shrikesh Laxmidas; Editing by Michael Roddy)