BUENOS AIRES (CN) — Buckling under the pressure of job losses, public spending cuts, a devalued local peso and record-setting (though slowing) inflation, Argentine workers will stage a nationwide strike next month, the second such action since libertarian President Javier Milei assumed power in December.
The strike, planned for May 9, is being led by the General Confederation of Labor — Argentina’s largest labor union, also known by its Spanish acronym CGT. Other unions are likely to follow suit.
CGT’s leadership announced the strike following a meeting on Thursday. At the meeting, they also decided to join a march led by universities to defend public education, which is planned for April 23, and to move forward with their traditional International Workers’ Day march on May 1.
Since assuming the presidency, the Milei administration has implemented a number of drastic austerity measures that have decelerated inflation and stabilized the peso. Those measures have come at a harsh cost, slowing Argentina’s economic activity and bringing the poverty rate to a 20-year high of 57%.
That cost has been paid primarily by the country’s working class, which has taken its concerns to the streets in a number of strikes and marches.
“The impact of these price and rate adjustments, which have been taking place with the sole purpose of reducing salaries, only leads us to an unacceptable recessionary process,” CGT leader Héctor Daer told reporters Thursday following the union meeting. “That’s why we made the decision to call for a 24-hour strike.”
Argentina’s largest labor unions led the first nationwide strike during Milei’s presidency on January 24 — just 45 days after he was sworn in.
The strike lasted 12 hours and saw tens of thousands take to the streets of downtown Buenos Aires in protest. It also set a record: Never before in Argentine history has a general strike commenced so soon after the election of a new president.
Higher wages are the chief demand of unionized workers. They say that in the face of Milei’s so-called economic shock therapy, their earnings are not cutting it. Argentina's inflation rate has topped 287% — the highest in the world.
By slashing government spending and drastically devaluing the local peso, the Milei administration has managed to slow inflation down, leading to three straight months of deceleration. However, curbing inflation has come at the price of slowed economic activity, causing dramatic drops in consumption and rising poverty rates.
Prior to CGT’s announcement, the government made an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade unions from staging another strike. On Wednesday, three prominent union leaders met with Minister of the Interior Guillermo Francos and Chief of Staff Nicolás Posse at the presidential Casa Rosada to discuss wage negotiations.
The politicians did not approve the desired inflation-related wage increases — and yet during a press conference the next morning, Milei spokesperson Manuel Adorni declared that “after the meeting we had, our understanding is that there will not be a strike.” Apparently, that understanding was not shared by union leaders.
Strikes, which were already common in inflation-wracked Argentina prior to Milei, have become a staple of the Milei era.
On the first day of school in February, teachers across the country staged a strike to protest Milei’s decision to cut a national fund that contributes to their salaries. That same month, hundreds of flights were canceled as air travel workers went on strike for higher pay. And this Thursday, daily commutes in Buenos Aires were disrupted as bus drivers went on strike, also demanding higher pay.
Lucas Ronconi, an economics professor at the University of Buenos Aires who researches labor, says that unprecedented economic policies are the primary reason for unprecedented labor organizing in Argentina, as seen in the nationwide strike 45 days into Milei's presidency.
“The impact that these measures are having on the salaries is exceptional,” Ronconi said. “The abrupt fall in workers’ purchasing power over the last few months has very few precedents.”
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