The main representatives of the Central General dos Trabalhadores (CGT) in Argentina assessed that this year’s second general strike this Thursday (9), in the fifth month of Javier Milei’s government, achieved its objectives. “The strike hurt them,” said Pablo Moyano, leader of the CGT who represents the truck drivers. He stated that the CGT will maintain the fight plan “with greater vigor” if the Milei government maintains the tightening measures against workers.
Convened by the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), the mobilization covers all sectors of the country: industry, commerce, banks, public and private education, and public service at municipal, state and national levels. The streets of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, remained empty throughout this Thursday (9). As well as bus stations, subways and airports in the country.
For Héctor Daer, leader of the CGT and representative of the Argentine Federation of Health Workers’ Associations, “the forcefulness of the strike demonstrates that the government has to take note and reconfigure its adjustment policy”.
“Their policies are pushing workers to extremes that can hardly be recovered if these policies continue,” Daer said.
In interview to Brazil in factthe union secretary of the Federación de los Aceiteros (Oilseed Workers Federation), Ezequiel Roldan, without hesitation describes Milei’s government as “a government that is trying to destroy all workers’ rights.”
The Federation is one of the most combative union organizations in the country, which organizes workers in one of the strategic sectors of Argentine production: the soybean and derivatives export complex. The combination of a combative union attitude and strategic production location allowed them to achieve some of the best working class wages in Argentina.
“We ended the negotiations and could have settled into our comfort zone. But as a Federation we are not just fighting for our salaries. We believe that all workers need to receive a minimum wage that covers their needs. The point is to fight for it. Unions need to demand company profit statements. And if there are companies that cannot pay, they have to prove it by showing the balance sheets corresponding to their profits”, he says.
About to be voted on in the Senate in the coming weeks, the Basic Law or Bus Law, as it became known, was one of the main targets of the strike mobilization. Approved by a vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the law grants special powers to the Executive, provides for the privatization of public companies, the elimination of the social security moratorium, a labor reform and a tax package.
“The only way to implement your economic plan is to destroy all the gains that we, the working class, have made. That’s why one of the cores of the mega law that they intend to pass in Congress is a labor reform that will end workers’ rights to organize and protest.”
On the afternoon of this Thursday (9), unions and organizations piqueteras (popular movements active in the country) that are part of the Meeting of Occupied and Unemployed Workers called a press conference in Congress Square.
“We are here to defend the achievements of our parents and grandparents” said the leader of the Single Tire Workers Union (Sutna), Alejandro Crespo, who classified the measure as an “unconstitutional reform”, which needs to be fought by the working class. “We are starting to see a proportionate response to the frontal attack that Argentine workers are receiving,” he said.
Government response
Argentine President Javier Milei made a post stating that the word “paro” (stoppage in Spanish) also means “naked and uncovered”. “So this means that those promoting the strike have been laid bare, revealing the type of people they are.”
At a press conference, Argentine government spokesman Manuel Adorni also attacked the unions and stated that the strike “attacks people’s pockets and freedom”.
Argentina’s Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, tried to catch one of the few public buses that were running to contest the strength of the strike movement, but her transport ticket was out of balance.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
