Argentine workers launch widespread 24-hour strike against Milei's austerity measures

Argentina's largest workers' unions kicked off a massive 24-hour strike on Thursday, bringing trains, planes and ports to a halt as they protested against sweeping austerity measures from libertarian President Javier Milei's government.

The capital, Buenos Aires, was quiet on Thursday morning, though public buses were running as usual. Banks and schools shuttered, and public hospitals and government agencies were running on skeleton staffing.

On Wednesday, ahead of the strike, workers joined a weekly pensioners' protest in front of Congress. Retirees have seen their pension funds slashed and their protests have ended in violence in recent weeks as sympathetic groups, such as soccer fans, have clashed with police.

"After this strike, they have to turn off the chainsaw," said Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of the ATE Nacional union, referring to Milei's analogy for slashing public spending.

"It's over, there's no more room for cuts," Aguiar added.

Unions are demanding the government reinstate sacked employees, reopen salary talks and scrap plans to privatize some public firms, among other measures.

Garbage was piling up on the streets and locals were split on the strike as services were upended.

"The right to strike is a worker right and I think there has to be more strikes because the situation with this government is unsustainable," said Hugo Velazuez, a 62-year-old worker who normally takes the railway, but was waiting for the bus due to the strike.

Lucas Edezma, 33, said he disagreed with the strike because it was complicating things for other workers.

"It's a problem," Edezma said. "Even hospitals have minimal staff and I have to bring my grandmother to the hospital and I don't know what I'm going to do."

In grains hub Rosario, "everything's stopped," said port chamber head Guillermo Wade. Argentina is the world's leading exporter of soybean oil and meal, the third-largest exporter of corn, and a major supplier of wheat.

Aviation union APA said it was joining the strike as "the only thing the administration has brought is a wave of layoffs across state agencies, higher poverty rates and international debts, which are the biggest scam in Argentina's history."

APA and other aviation unions have fought to bring up employee salaries in line with inflation - which, while falling under Milei, still came in at a monthly increase of 2.4% in February - and opposed the president's efforts to privatize state-run carrier Aerolineas Argentinas.