The Presidency of the Regional Government is pleased with the approval, by majority, of the amendment to the Lajes Labour Agreement and the Labour Regulation of the Cooperation and Defence Cooperation between Portugal and the United States at the Assembly of the Republic on Friday. The votes of the Socialist Party were decisive to this outcome as well as the abstention parliamentary groups of Social Democratic Party and the Popular Party.
The approved resolutions determine the replacement of the salary survey, as a system to assess salary raises of the Portuguese workers at the Lajes Air Base by the annual increase between the amount proposed for the Portuguese Civil Service and the amount proposed for civil servants at the service of the US Department of Defence. 
As a result of this voting, the American Administration will now pay the wage differential due to the Portuguese workers in the years 2006 and 2007, the total amount being of $ 250,000.00.
The approval of this amendment is the culmination of a long and intense negotiation process, which has begun over two years ago. It not only validates the solution proposed for the assessing the salary raises at the Lajes Air Base, but also allows to solve, in a balanced and responsible manner, a relevant problem for Portuguese workers, for whom the salary survey issues had become a focus of tension and uncertainty, threatening to disturb the climate of social peace and cooperation that has always existed and that is precisely one of the most important characteristics of the Lajes Base.
The result of the voting was also an important contribution to reinforce the transatlantic relations and enhance the role of the Azores in this area.