Argentina’s largest labor unions called a one-day nationwide strike on Thursday to protest President Javier Milei’s flagship overhaul of the country’s labor law, intensifying a standoff between the libertarian leader and long-powerful unions as the bill faces an uncertain passage through Congress.
Banks and public schools closed, buses and subways stopped, airlines canceled hundreds of flights and public hospitals postponed all but emergency surgeries. One week after Argentina’s Senate gave initial approval to the labor reform bill, the lower house will debate it Thursday.
The show of force from Argentine unions — including workers in transportation, construction and food services, among other crucial industries — comes as frustration simmers over an uneven economic recovery under Milei, whose government has brought fiscal stability to a nation once plagued by runaway inflation but struggled to address stubborn unemployment, stagnant wages and lagging growth.
Milei considers the reform of Argentina’s half-century-old labor laws crucial to his efforts to lure foreign investment, increase productivity and boost job creation in a country where about two in five workers are employed off the books.
