The CGT umbrella union grouping on Thursday confirmed that it will call a general strike – the third of President Javier Milei’s time in office – on April 10.
The general secretary of the Confederación General del Trabajo (General Confederation of Labour, CGT), Héctor Daer, said the strikers would also demand an emergency raise in pensions and an end to the freeze on public works imposed by Milei over the last 15 months, among other measures.
"From midnight on the 10th, a 24-hour strike," Daer told a press conference.
The walkout will express anger at austerity measures and will also condemn a police crackdown on a protest last week in support of pensioners, during which 45 people were injured.
The labor union has also decided it will mobilise on March 24 to mark the anniversary of the coup d’état that brought the 1976-1983 military dictatorship to power and will join a protest demanding improved pensions on April 9.
The work stoppage will be the third of its kind since Milei came to power in December 2023, waving a chainsaw as a symbol of his plans to slash public spending and tame runaway inflation.
Pensioners have suffered the most under harsh austerity measures, which plunged Argentina into a deep recession for most of 2024 but led to a dramatic slowdown in price increases.
Pension increases having fallen far short of inflation over the past year, leading to a sharp decline in retirees' living conditions, made worse by the government's decision to scrap price controls on medicines.
Last week, numerous football fans joined pensioners at a protest outside parliament, which ended in running battles with the police in which over 120 people were arrested.
A photo-journalist was critically injured.
The government has labelled the rioters "hooligans" and accused them of "sedition."
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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