MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's CGT announces 24-hour general strike

The union leaders will decide next week the exact date of the strike, Daer explained

Argentina's General Labor Confederation (CGT) will be staging a 24-hour general strike against the government of Javier Milei, tentatively set for before April 10. Héctor Daer, one of the CGTs triumvirs, announced the plan Thursday during a meeting with social movements and at the closing of Juan Grabois' Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) plenary at the CGT headquarters.

“What we agreed by consensus is to hold a 24-hour strike before April 10,” said Daer. “The most affected are the sectors with fixed incomes,” he added.

The CGT's board will convene on March 20 to finalize the details regarding the date to protest multiple issues, including police repression of recent demonstrations, low wages, layoffs, and economic policies like wage suppression and increased debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“On Thursday next week, we are going to have a meeting of the Board of Directors of our CGT, which has already been called for that date,” Daer went on.

Thursday's announcement followed violent clashes during a retirees' protest in front of the National Congress, which resulted in over 120 arrests and nearly 50 people injured, prompting widespread condemnation of the government's repressive tactics.

The UTEP plenary also coincided with the first national “Pope Francis” Congress, marking the anniversary of former Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio's election as Pope.

If the strike proceeds, it would be the third against Milei's administration, following previous strikes on Jan. 24 and May 9 last year. The CGT and other social movements also address broader concerns like pension rights, industry decline, and deregulation threats.

In Daer's view, the Libertarian administration is not only “stepping on wages” so that they do not grow above inflation; it is also “destroying” Argentine industry and causing layoffs. Further borrowing from the IMF could only make matters worse.

Daer also pointed out that the measure would “not only [be] because of yesterday's repression, [but because] this Government does not blush” when it proposes the installation of ideas opposing the consensus built over the years by the Argentine society, such as the abolition of gender policies and the figure of femicide in the Penal Code, among others.

“The claim of the retirees is fair and genuine,” insisted UTEP Secretary-General Alejandro Gramajo, who was also very critical of the police repression on Wednesday. “This government has deployed one of the most complex repressive devices we have experienced in Argentina,” he underlined. “This model of cruelty, hunger, and misery has an expiration date, and that date will be set by the working people,” he further noted.

“The Pope is the world leader who has done the most for the humble, for the workers. The agenda set forth by Francis, which we assume from the popular movements, is the doctrinal updating of the search for the construction of social justice,” Gramajo also said.

Among those attending the UTEP convention were Hugo Moyano (lorry drivers), Andrés Rodríguez (civil servants), and Sergio Palazzo (banking workers), among other union leaders, in addition to 1980 Nobel Peace Prize laureate winner and human rights activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.