Public workers in Argentina will wage a day-long nationwide strike on February 24 in protest at widespread job cuts carried out by the new centre-right government since it came to power in December, their union said.
President Mauricio Macri has dismissed thousands of state employees in his drive to tame a ballooning fiscal deficit, but the job losses are unpopular with many in a country used to generous state jobs and benefits.
The Association of State Workers (ATE), the country’s largest union of public employees, said hospital nurses and technicians, school caretakers, grains inspectors and government ministry employees were set to take part in the walkout. So too are unionised members of the National Civil Aviation Administration, raising the prospect of disruptions to flights.
“The strike seeks to confront the brutal wave of layoffs which have left more than 20,000 households in the street,” the ATE union said in a statement.
The union also called for the swift opening of wage hike negotiations, another thorn in the side of Macri’s government after it devalued the peso currency in December while already battling an inflation rate running at around 30%.
Macri’s government has expressed its intent for salary hikes to be capped at 26%, but many of the country’s muscular unions are demanding more than 30%, setting the stage for tough negotiations.
Macri has come under fire from supporters of the Peronism movement, which had dominated Argentine politics during the past 70 years but lost its grip on power in November’s presidential election, for cutting state jobs.
His ministers say many of the workers sacked so far were “gnocchis” or no-show workers, a claim strongly denied by union leaders. The government plans to review thousands of other contracts.
The planned February 24 strike underscores the challenges he will face as he seeks to lower public spending.
Argentina’s fiscal deficit swelled to 7.1% of gross domestic product under former president Cristina Fernandez. Public sector employment leapt by an estimated 50% during her eight years in power, private economists estimate.
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