Argentina: Top union declares general strike
Under President Mauricio Macri to protest the conservative leader’s economic policies
PHOTO: REUTERS
BUENOS AIRES:
Argentina’s largest labour union, the CGT, has declared its first general strike under President Mauricio Macri to protest the conservative leader’s economic policies, a spokesman said Friday. The decision comes after months of criticising a rightward policy shift under Macri, who took office in December vowing to reignite growth in Latin America’s third-largest economy with free-market reforms. “The economy still isn’t taking off, and consumption has been falling for seven months now,” Schmid told a news conference. Argentine unions, which are broadly allied with the opposition, are calling for new salary negotiations in the face of inflation expected to hit 43% this year. Macri came to power with a flurry of reforms, slashing import and export taxes, announcing subsidy cuts for electricity and natural gas, and ending currency controls — which triggered a sharp devaluation of the peso and fuelled inflation. But the promised growth has yet to arrive.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2016.
Argentina’s largest labour union, the CGT, has declared its first general strike under President Mauricio Macri to protest the conservative leader’s economic policies, a spokesman said Friday. The decision comes after months of criticising a rightward policy shift under Macri, who took office in December vowing to reignite growth in Latin America’s third-largest economy with free-market reforms. “The economy still isn’t taking off, and consumption has been falling for seven months now,” Schmid told a news conference. Argentine unions, which are broadly allied with the opposition, are calling for new salary negotiations in the face of inflation expected to hit 43% this year. Macri came to power with a flurry of reforms, slashing import and export taxes, announcing subsidy cuts for electricity and natural gas, and ending currency controls — which triggered a sharp devaluation of the peso and fuelled inflation. But the promised growth has yet to arrive.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2016.