Argentina's Unions Wage General Strike, Crippling Transportation and Essential Services Amid Economic Crisis

Argentina's largest trade unions launched a massive 24-hour general strike on Thursday, halting public transportation, closing businesses, and disrupting essential services, in protest against the austerity measures and deregulation policies of President Javier Milei.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Argentina's biggest trade unions orchestrated one of their most formidable challenges to the libertarian government of President Javier Milei, holding a mass general strike on Thursday that brought the nation to a virtual standstill.

The 24-hour strike, which began at midnight on Thursday, paralyzed key bus, rail, and subway lines, forcing commuters to find alternative modes of transportation. Main avenues and streets, as well as major transportation terminals, were eerily deserted.

Most teachers were unable to reach schools, and parents kept their children home due to the absence of public transportation. Trash collectors and health workers, with the exception of those in emergency rooms, joined the walkouts.

The strike was directed at Milei's painful austerity measures and contentious deregulation push, which unions argue disproportionately affects the poor and middle classes. Milei has slashed spending, laid off government workers, and frozen all public works projects in an attempt to rescue Argentina from its worst financial crisis in two decades.

The government, which is backed by liberal and conservative parties, downplayed the disruption as a cynical ploy by its left-wing political opponents. Presidential spokesperson Manual Adorni accused the union leaders of "extorting Argentines to try to return to power."

Union leaders, however, defended the strike as an eruption of public outrage over Milei's free-market policies. They are adamant that they had no choice but to escalate their actions after Argentina's lower house approved Milei's state overhaul bill and tax packages last week.

Even though lawmakers scrapped the bill's most controversial articles, unions remain vehemently opposed to parts of the package that relax labor market regulations and grant Milei power to restructure and privatize public agencies. The bill is now being debated in the opposition-dominated Senate.

Rubén Sobrero, general-secretary of the Railway Union, warned that the unions were prepared to extend the strike if negotiations did not yield results. "If there is no response within these 24 hours, we'll do another 36," he said.

For months, raucous demonstrations by leftist parties gripped Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, in sharp contrast to the eerie silence prevailing on the streets during the strike.

Argentina's main international airport warned travelers to check in with their airlines as flight boards in terminals displayed a stream of yellow cancellation notices. The country's flagship carrier, Aerolíneas Argentinas, announced it had canceled nearly 200 domestic and regional flights and rescheduled over a dozen international flights, affecting 24,000 passengers and costing the airline $2 million.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich posted a photo of shattered bus windows on social media, accusing protesters of "trying to break everything we are achieving."

Political science expert Sebastián Mazzuca believes that both sides are politically motivated. Milei is compensating for worsening economic pressures by using the strike to assail his rivals, while unions that had their candidate defeated in the last presidential election are flexing their muscles by bringing the economy to a halt.

"This conflict is sold to the public as a social conflict, but it's really a political conflict," Mazzuca said. "The outgoing government doesn't want to die. And the new government wants to stay in power."