Planes, trains, trucks and taxis ground to a halt across the nation on Wednesday as unions staged a major one-day strike over President Javier Milei's austerity policies.
The unions called the protest over Milei's plans to privatise national flagship carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas and to denounce government cutbacks and spiralling poverty levels since he took office late last year.
Over a million passengers were affected by the industrial action, which saw over 1,800 trains cancelled, according to Trenes Argentinos, the state-owned rail operator in Buenos Aires.
Aerolíneas Argentinas said that 263 flights had been affected, impacting around 27,700 passengers.
Teamsters, Subte underground train-drivers in Buenos Aires and ferry operators also took part in the strike, which saw activists block roads in parts of the country. Some public sector workers also walked off the job.
The main Unión Tranviarios Automotor (UTA) bus drivers' union, which did not participate, said it would go on strike on Thursday. It had decided not to join the strike due to historical disagreements with other labour leaders.
However, late Wednesday UTA representatives announced an “agreement in principle” with the government on wage increases and lifted the strike.
"A significant section of the population is having a hard time," Pablo Moyano, a leader of the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) umbrella union grouping, Argentina's main labour federation, told the local Radio 10 station.
He said the strike also aimed to defend the "sovereignty" of Argentina's “national transport sector” and prevent state companies from being sold to foreign investors "for a few bucks."
Juan Pablo Grey, the leader of the Asociación Argentina de Aeronavegantes (AAA) airline workers’ union, said that the protest was not just for their workers.
"We are fighting not only for sectoral issues, but for education, health, retirees, and for everything that this government is destroying," said Brey.
Not all Argentines were happy with the strike. Dante Medina, who works at a food store, said that he thought it was "unfair that everyone else should pay for the demands they have” as he walked near Retiro station.
Transport Secretary Franco Mogetta told Radio Mitre slammed the strike was "a political boycott by a group of leaders who are looking out for their own interests.”
Milei, who wielded a chainsaw on the campaign trail last year as a symbol of his plan to slash public spending, has cut energy and transport subsidies and thousands of public sector jobs.
The Asociación Trabajadores del Estado (ATE) state-workers union staged a 36-hour strike that started Tuesday morning.
Milei’s policies have produced Argentina's first budget surplus in 15 years but have also been blamed for plunging the country into a deep recession and driving the proportion of Argentines living in poverty up 11 points in six months to 52.9 percent.
And while inflation has slowed in recent months, it remains stubbornly high. Yearly inflation stood at 209 percent in September.
Union leaders, staging a press conference late Wednesday night, warned the government that they were only just “warming up” and that further strikes would be coming down the line.
– TIMES/NA/AFP
