Several thousand people demonstrated in Buenos Aires on Thursday, the eve of May 1, against austerity and the labor reform of ultraliberal President Javier Milei, with the main CGT union center promising to "harden social conflicts".
“We are going to deepen the conflicts, patience is over!”, told the crowd Octavio Argüello, co-general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT). “We can no longer tolerate that it is always the people who undergo the budgetary adjustment.”
“Clearly, we are going to move towards much harsher forceful action,” the co-leader, Jorge Sola, threatened ahead of the demonstration, without however confirming an upcoming general strike, which would be the fifth of the Milei presidency, beginning in December 2023.
In a festive atmosphere of firecrackers and drums, the traditional Labor Day march, brought forward a day, only half filled the emblematic Place de May, in front of the presidency.
In the crowd, demonstrators say they fear in particular the extension of working hours, the calling into question of severance pay or the erosion of collective protections. “We are losing rights, and the economic situation is more and more difficult,” summarizes Oscar Marin, an employee in recycling.
Luz Marina Jaureguiberry, leader of the Sadop teaching union, denounces an ultraliberal model which "undermines social justice".
May 1 comes in a tense social climate, marked by the adoption in Parliament in February of a vast reform of labor deregulation carried out by the executive. The reform is the subject of legal appeals, including one filed by the CGT which considers it "unconstitutional".
For the executive, the text must make the labor market more flexible and stimulate employment, in a country which has 43% of workers in the informal economy, a proportion which has been increasing for two years.
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