Argentina’s largest trade union launched one of its fiercest challenges to President Javier Millei’s liberal government, staging a massive general strike on Thursday that saw hundreds of flights canceled and major bus and train lines cut off. , subway service was suspended.
Major thoroughfares, streets, and major transportation terminals were eerily deserted. Most teachers were unable to go to school, and parents kept their children at home. The garbage collector quit his job. So did health care workers, with the exception of emergency room staff.
Libertarian Javier Millei is sworn in as Argentina’s new president
The 24-hour strike against Millais’ painful austerity measures and controversial deregulation push threatens to cripple the country of 46 million people, with banks, businesses and state institutions also shut down in protest. Ta.
Thursday’s action was the second nationwide union strike since Mr. Millay took power last December, with spending cuts and government demands to rescue Argentina from its worst financial crisis in two decades. It laid off employees and froze all public works.
He also devalued the local currency, stabilizing the peso but also causing prices to soar. Argentina’s annual inflation rate is now approaching 300%, higher than even crisis-hit Lebanon and considered the highest in the world.
Trains are stopped at Retiro station due to a general strike against President Javier Millei’s reforms, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abdo)
The government announced that approximately 6.6 million people will be unable to commute to work due to disruption to transport services. Few cars were seen on the usually busy streets during Thursday morning rush hour. Trash was already piling up on deserted sidewalks.
Millay posted a photo on Instagram holding up a soccer jersey with the words “I DON’T STOP” written on it.
The country’s largest trade union, known by its acronym CGT, said it was striking alongside other trade unions “in defense of democracy, workers’ rights and a living wage.”
Argentina’s powerful trade unions, backed by Argentina’s left-wing Peronist party that has dominated national politics for decades, have led a pushback against Mr. Millay’s policies in the streets and courts in recent months.
“We face a government that is pushing for the abolition of labor and social rights,” the union said, calling Thursday’s strike a response to Millais’ free-market policies that disproportionately affected the poor and middle class. They are trying to portray it as an outpouring of national anger.
The government downplayed the chaos as a cynical ploy by left-wing political opponents.
Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni said of the union leaders, “They want to continue Argentina on the road to servitude,” adding that the union leaders “want to force Argentines to return to power.” “It’s happening,” he accused.
Union leaders said they had no choice but to escalate action after Argentina’s lower house of parliament approved Milay’s state reform bill and tax policy last week.
Trade unions have been forced to accept parts of the bill that would deregulate the labor market and give Millais powers to reorganize and privatize public institutions, even as MPs scrapped the bill’s most controversial provisions. remains vehemently opposed. The bill is currently being debated in the opposition-controlled Senate.
Ruben Sobrero, general secretary of the Railway Workers’ Union, said the union was prepared to extend the strike if negotiations did not yield results. “If we don’t receive a response within 24 hours, we will respond for another 36 hours,” he said.
In contrast to the silence that prevailed in the streets on Thursday, noisy demonstrations by left-wing parties have gripped the capital Buenos Aires for months, most recently on Monday and Tuesday this week.
Argentina’s main international airport has warned travelers to check in with their airlines as yellow cancellation notices continue to appear on flight boards inside terminals. The country’s flagship airline, Air Argentina, canceled about 200 domestic and regional flights and rescheduled more than a dozen international flights, impacting 24,000 passengers and costing the airline $2 million. announced.
Only one bus company announced it would continue normal service on Thursday. Shortly after the strike began in the middle of the night, police said protesters in Buenos Aires attacked two of the company’s buses and smashed windows, but there were no casualties.
“We cannot let them (unions) destroy what we have achieved,” conservative Security Minister Patricia Bullrich wrote on social media, along with a photo of a broken bus window.
Experts say both sides are politically motivated.
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By using strikes to attack rivals, Milley is compensating for worsening economic pressures, said Sebastian Mazuka, a political science expert at Johns Hopkins University. In order to shut down the economy, the labor unions that defeated their candidates in the last presidential election are stepping up.
“This conflict is sold to the public as a social conflict, but it is actually a political conflict,” Mazzuca said. “The outgoing government doesn’t want to die. And the new government wants to stay in power.”
