Nationwide strikes against Macri sweep Argentina

Edited by Ed Newman
2019-05-29 14:19:37

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Buenos Aires, May 29 (RHC)-- Argentinean President Maurico Macri is facing a full work stoppage today, Wednesday, as citizens say 'no' to the recession brought on by the Macri administration.  More than 70 Argentinean trade unions are taking part in a general strike, led by the General Confederation of Workers (CGT) against President Mauricio Macri and his administration's economic policies.

This is the fifth nationwide workers' strike since Macri took office in 2015.  In Buenos Aires, several grassroots organizations announced that they will set "popular pots" in the streets and give away food to demonstrators to "show the hunger" that Argentines have had to live for the past three years due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment policies.

The nationwide strike is supported by the Argentineam Confederation of Transport Workers (CATT), an influential organization that brings together 20 unions of port, maritime, aeronautical, urban and railroad workers.

The nation's services and industries are at a standstill as workers joined the strike action.  Train services, bus services and garbage collection services have been cancelled in anticipation of the labor action.  Highways will also be affected because toll workers are joining demonstrations across Argentina.

As airline unions are also taking part in the massive general strike, hundreds of domestic and international flights have been cancelled or delayed, affecting about 37,000 passengers.  And according to reports from Buenos Aires, classes have been cancelled in elementary public schools, high schools and universities while public hospitals will out of service as state Argentine doctors and health professionals plan to participate in the nationwide strike.

This massive protest is the Argentinean workers' response to a government whose policies have generated recession, devaluation and price hikes.  Over the last year, inflation reached a 54 percent rate and output contraction was 2.5 percent, which raised unemployment to almost 10 percent and the poverty rate to over 32 percent.

 



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