While organized workers seek to repeal the controversial reform, it advances in Congress. It still needs to be ratified by the Senate. Workers claim that it eliminates many of their rights.

In the early morning hours of February 20, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved a controversial labor reform proposed by Javier Milei’s ultraliberal government with 135 votes in favor and 115 against. The vote took place in the wake of fierce protests and a 24-hour strike general called for by the country’s trade union confederations who outrightly reject the reform. The far-right government defends the measure, arguing that labor rules must be modernized.

Now, the law will return to the Senate, where Milei’s long-awaited reform, applauded by the International Monetary Fund, to which Argentina owes a record debt, could be definitively approved. “Next Friday, the country will take a step forward… The change it is bringing about in Argentina is to ensure that labor relations between employers and employees are based on coexistence rather than conflict. That is what we are going to bring to the Senate floor next Friday,” Senator Patricia Bullrich told the press.

Among other aspects, the labor reform authorizes an increase in the working day from 8 to 12 hours, restricts the right to strike and the drafting of collective agreements, modifies the vacation system (which can now be split up throughout the year), recalculates severance pay, and reduces by 50% the pay for those who have requested leave due to work accidents or illnesses (although this article was removed during negotiations between deputies and the government in Congress).

Argentina paralyzed

But workers have not stood idly by. The country’s most important unions (joined by non-unionized workers, movements, and political parties of different ideologies, students, teachers, scientists, etc.) called a 24 hour national general strike on February 18 to reject the labor reform, which they consider a direct attack on the working class.

“From day one on the streets, in Congress, in the courts, and in every workplace. This is not a reaction. It is consistency. If they move against workers’ rights, they undermine the national industry and the country’s future. Rights are not negotiable. National strike,” wrote the General Labor Confederation (CGT).

For its part, the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (CTA) stated on its official website: “This veritable referendum against the reform shows that, even if they manage to secure the votes to pass it with the betrayal of legislators who were elected in their districts on an opposition platform, the Argentine people are ready to fight to defeat this law, confront its possible implementation, and recover their rights. The only way to build a free, fair, and sovereign Argentina is with national industry, employment with rights, and decent wages.”

Workers decided to take to the streets and paralyze their activities to demand that the legislature not approve a measure they consider “regressive” and that “eliminates workers’ rights that were won through collective struggles.” To the surprise of few, the vast majority of business leaders support and endorse the reform.

Although the CGT called for a strike without demonstrations, the other major trade union, the CTA and the CTA (Autónoma), participated in street protests and demonstrations alongside other unions and left-wing movements. The demonstrations were met with a heavy police presence, who decided to repress the protesters by firing rubber bullets and throwing large amounts of tear gas.

The immediate effects of the strike

The strike has had clear effects on production and trade in the South American country, but also on tourism. According to the Argentine Chamber of Airlines, some 400 flights were canceled since the general strike was declared. Added to this was the paralysis of public transport by train and subway, as well as most bus lines.

Schools were also at a standstill, with teachers joining the strike. Banks were also part of the protest and remained closed, while hospitals were only attending to medical emergencies. The few merchants who opened their businesses have found themselves facing empty streets and little movement of people.

Milei had threatened to deduct pay for the days on strike from state workers participating in the action, further exacerbating polarization in the public sector, which has been under constant attack by Milei. According to some figures, since taking office in 2023, the far-right government has laid off more than 60,000 state employees.

Added to this is the large number of people who have lost their formal jobs outside the state since Milei took office. According to Jorge Sola, Secretary of the CGT, some 400 people a day are losing their fulltime jobs, which is “breaking” Argentine society and the productive sector.

For now, we will have to wait and see who wins this battle between Milei, business interests, and the IMF, versus organized workers and their powerful ability to paralyze production and trade in Argentina. This struggle will largely determine whether Argentina manages to preserve its historic defense of certain welfare measures or whether it definitively opens its history to the neoliberal free market and thus attempts to resume the failed attempt of the 1990s that led the country to one of its most severe economic and political crises in a century.

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