Argentina general strike targets Milei labor reforms

Argentina’s main union confederation, the CGT, staged a general strike aimed at derailing President Javier Milei’s labor-market reforms—reforms that, in essence, try to loosen Argentina’s century-old system of corporatist privileges. The stoppage hit transport and logistics first, because that is where a general strike becomes real: it is less a workplace dispute than a nationwide chokehold.

The Buenos Aires Herald reports that the strike disrupted air travel, urban transport and port activity. Flights were affected as unions representing airport and aviation workers joined the stoppage, while public transport in parts of the country ran on reduced schedules. Cruise operations and port services faced interruptions, showing that in a trade-dependent economy the fastest way to “make a point” is to immobilize third parties who never voted in the CGT’s internal elections.

After the action, the CGT declared victory. According to the Herald, union leaders claimed around 90% adherence—an impressive statistic in a country where measuring anything accurately is an artisanal craft, and where “adherence” can mean anything from voluntary participation to simply not being able to get to work because the buses were not running.

Unions say the government’s labor reforms weaken worker protections. Unions demonstrate power by converting critical infrastructure into a bargaining chip. That is not persuasion; it is leverage. When transport unions or port unions strike, they are not negotiating with their employer alone. They are effectively imposing an unlegislated tax on everyone else’s time, inventory, contracts, and missed connections.

An opinion column at PanAm Post frames the strike as mistimed and likely to intensify public anger at union bosses. That may be true—but the deeper point is that Argentina’s strike weapon works precisely because the state has long granted unions a privileged position in labor relations, with legal protections that make disruption low-risk and high-impact.

Milei’s project is to unwind parts of that settlement: reduce rigidities, curb mandatory dues and closed-shop dynamics, and make hiring and firing less of a legal minefield. The unions’ project is to prove that any attempt to dilute their cartel-like role will be met with a demonstration of capacity to shut down the country.

If Argentina wants a modern economy, it needs contracts that survive political moods and institutions that do not treat mobility and trade as negotiable. A general strike is a blunt signal that the country still runs on permissions—some issued by government, others enforced by organizations that behave like parallel regulators. The CGT calls it defending workers. The rest of the country experiences it as being governed by whoever can stop the buses.