MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine unions ratify May 9 general strike against Milei's policies

When the measure was announced, Argentina “was bad and now it is worse,” Daer (L) explained besides Moyano

Argentina's main unions insisted Wednesday during the Labor Day demonstrations that the plans for the May 9 general strike against President Javier Milei's economic reforms that are affecting people's purchase power were “not in doubt.” Healthcare workers union leader Héctor Daer, who co-chairs the General Labor Confederation (CGT), also explained that “We are going to go ahead with the struggle plan that we have been developing. When the measure was announced, Argentina ”was bad and now it is worse.”

“We have a very clear agenda of claims, which have to do with the social situation, with the decisions that were taken throughout these months of government, decisions that had to do with a brutal adjustment on the most vulnerable sectors,” Daer also pointed out. “We are not going to give up one iota of all the rights we have won throughout history,” he went on.

Co-CGT Chairman Pablo Moyano also pledged not to hold any negotiation with the ruling coalition of Milei's La Libertad Avanza and the now-defunct Juntos por el Cambio of former President Mauricio Macri. “The 33 Peronist senators are going to vote against the Ley Bases” he also underlined about Milei's mega reform project passed by the Lower House earlier this week.

Moyano also said Milei was right when he claimed that salaries had outpaced inflation: “his salaries have ... those of the workers have not.”

“Today is a horrible, sad and bitter day. They do not realize the damage they are doing to the Argentine people through what was voted on yesterday. There is not a single benefit in the Base Law, it is for the businessmen. And for the Senate to approve it, the Government is blackmailing the governors through public works,” Moyano also argued.

Also participating in Wednesday's demonstrations was Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof. “We are here to support the unity of the workers' movement in a very difficult moment for our country,” he said. Kicillof also spoke of “a new attack against workers' rights, which seeks to lead us towards a model of a primary, agro-exporting country without sovereignty.”

“Yesterday something very serious happened, because of the methods and, above all, because of the content: it is nothing new related to the Austrian school, but a labor reform that targets wages and rights,” Kicillof also stressed.

The impact of Milei's policies “is already being felt in the national industry and the SMEs of Buenos Aires: the success of the policies of the national government implies the defeat of the workers, of the retired and the great popular majorities,” the former Economy Minister argued.

“The destiny of the province of Buenos Aires is tied to the destiny of the workers' movement and the national industry,” insisted Kicillof, who will not be invited to Córdoba on May 25 for the signing of the May Pact Milei has called for with provincial governors to set the country in motion.

“I doubt that he wants to come if he is in favor of the fiscal deficit,” Milei said in a radio interview about Kicillof. “Those who do not support the agreement will be left out,” the President insisted.