Argentine government will deduct the day for state employees who join the strike on January 24

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BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The Argentine government will deduct the day not worked for state employees who join the national strike on January 24 called by the main union center in rejection of the economic and labor reforms promoted by President Javier Milei.

“The salary is a compensation and whoever does not work will not be paid,” said presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni in a press conference held on Thursday.

The official also described as “childish” the reasons given by the leaders of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) for calling for the measure of force and confirmed the decision to open an anonymous telephone line for “all those who feel extorted, threatened , forced to stop” and want to report it.

On December 28, the CGT called the first general strike against the ultraliberal president who had assumed power on the 10th of that same month and after he announced a battery of far-reaching reforms.

The protest is directed against a presidential decree that contemplates the repeal or modification of more than 300 laws to deregulate an economy heavily intervened by the State and that enables profound changes in labor matters, as well as the rejection of a broad bill with reforms in the political, social, fiscal and security spheres, among others.

The CGT and other leftist union centers and social organizations that will join the protest maintain that the government intends to intimidate workers and “criminalize” social protest.

When ratifying the measure of force days ago, Héctor Daer, one of the leaders of the CGT, said that Milei’s reformist initiatives “attack individual rights, collective rights, limit union action at a time of greatest inequality in the country and, therefore, Of course, they weaken unions and attack regional economies.”

The decree restricts the right to strike in essential activities such as hospital services, education and transportation and contemplates the possibility of choosing new compensation mechanisms that will make the dismissal of employees less burdensome.

At the same time, it enables workers to direct their contributions directly to private health providers instead of doing so through union social works as until now, which affects an important fund of resources for the sector.

Shortly after assuming power, Milei first launched a severe adjustment plan to reduce public spending and reduce the fiscal deficit, which he blames largely for the annual inflation of 211%.

He then published the decree, which is facing setbacks in justice due to the lawsuits initiated by the CGT and other union centers, and subsequently presented the reformist bill that is debated in legislative commissions and faces an uncertain future, since the ruling party is in clear numerical disadvantage in both chambers.

All initiatives seek, according to the president, to combat inflation – Argentina’s main problem -, reduce poverty that affects more than 40% of the population and lay the foundations to achieve stability and economic growth.