Buenos Aires-Argentina’s largest workers’ unions began a 24-hour massive strike on Thursday (10), paralyzing trains, planes and ports in protest against Austerity measures of President Javier Milei’s government.
The capital, Buenos Aires, was quiet on Thursday morning, although public buses were working normally. Banks and schools closed the doors, and public hospitals and government agencies were working with a minimum team.
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On Wednesday (9), before the strike, the workers participated in a weekly retirees protest in front of Congress. Retirees saw their pension funds were cut and their protests ended in violence in recent weeks, when sympathizing groups, such as soccer fans, have clashed with the police.
“After this strike, they will have to turn off the chainsaw,” said Rodolfo Aguiar, the union secretary to the national union, referring to the analogy of Milei for the cutting of public spending.
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“It’s over, there is no more room for cuts,” added Aguiar.
Unions are requiring the government to readmit the dismissed employees, reopen wage negotiations and eliminate the privatization plans of some public companies, among other measures.
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In the Rosary Grain Center, “Everything is still,” said the head of the Port Chamber, Guillermo Wade. Argentina is the world’s largest exporter of oil and soybean meal, the third largest corn exporter and one of the main wheat suppliers.
The APA Aviation Union said it was adhering to the strike because “the only thing the government brought was a wave of state agencies, higher poverty rates and international debts, which are the greatest fraud in Argentina history.”
APA and other aviation unions fought for employees’ salaries to be aligned with inflation – which, although falling under Milei’s command, still had a monthly increase of 2.4% in February – and opposed the president’s efforts to privatize the Argentine Aerolineas state company.
