Argentina shuts down as Macri faces first general strike
Argentina was brought to a standstill on Thursday as labor unions demanding higher wages staged the country’s first general strike since President Mauricio Macri took office 15 months ago.
The 24-hour strike started at midnight, bringing to a halt public transport, airports, customs, schools, factories and some government offices in South America’s second largest economy. Grain trucks dwindled at Argentina’s ports, with just 220 trucks with corn and soybeans lined up near plants around the city of Rosario. That compares with close to 3,000 trucks on Wednesday.
The main access points to the capital Buenos Aires were blocked by picketers on Thursday morning. Teachers in Buenos Aires Province, meanwhile, have been at loggerheads for weeks with Governor María Eugenia Vidal -
a key Macri ally - over salary negotiations.
President Macri has said the strike will cost the economy 15 billion pesos ($970 million).
Marches and rallies were held throughout the country, with participants also protesting against the Macri administration's austerity measures - particularly subsidy cuts that have led to utility rate hikes of up to 1000%.
The unions argue that the end of the subsidies has led to job reductions and sky-rocketing prices.
Macri defends the measures, enacted mostly by decree shortly after he took office 16 months ago, as the best way to rein in budget deficits. The FY2016 deficit, however, rose by 62% to 365 billion pesos ($25 billion) as corporate tax cuts and the worst recession since 2002 reduced revenues.
While inflation slowed in the second half of the year from a 47% peak in July (the highest in 24 years), it remains stubbornly high at 35%. Prices in February alone rose by 2.5% after the government cut electricity rate subsidies further.
The retail, construction, and manufacturing sectors have been the hardest hit by the recession, with real retail sales down 4% in February after falling by 7% in 2016, an estimated 8,000 small and medium business failing, and around 250,000 layoffs.
Local television showed footage of skirmishes between riot police and protesters at the pickets. Six protesters were arrested and four injured in clashes as police attempted to break up a picket that was blocking one of the main entry points to Buenos Aires.
Security was heavy downtown, where the Latin American edition of the World Economic Forum was taking place. Speaking at the Buenos Aires Hilton, Macri joked he was "happy to be at work."
"The president may be happy to be at work," CGT labor federation leader Héctor Daer said. "What upsets us is that so many aren't."
At: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-06/argentina-shuts-down-as-macri-faces-first-general-strike
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Normally hectic on weekdays, Constitución Station was mostly silent on Friday as the CGT and CTA labor federations staged their first joint general strike since Macri took office.[/center]
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