2024 Argentine General Strike Challenges Libertarian Administration Amid Austerity Measures and Inflation Crisis

On May 9, 2024, Argentina’s biggest trade unions organized a massive general strike, which was one of the most forceful challenges to the libertarian administration of President Javier Milei. This action resulted in the cancellation of over 200 domestic and regional flights operated by Aerolineas and more than 100 arriving and departing flights at the country’s primary airport due to strikes affecting key transport links such as buses, trains, and subways. The strike was also responsible for causing major disruptions across the country, with many schools shuttered, and garbage collectors refusing to work, except for those working in emergency departments. The unions behind the strike claimed that they were defending democracy, labor rights, and a fair income in response to Milei’s aggressive austerity measures and deregulation initiatives. However, Milei’s government dismissed the strike as a tactic employed by left-wing political adversaries, claiming that they were attempting to maintain Argentina in servitude. The escalating disagreement between the unions and Milei’s administration comes on the heels of the latter’s successful push for an omnibus bill in the lower house of Congress. The legislation is currently being debated in the Senate. Argentina’s high inflation rate of approximately 300% is higher than that of crisis-ridden Lebanon, and Milei has attempted to address the country’s worst financial crisis in two decades by cutting expenses, laying off employees, and halting all public works initiatives. By doing so, he was able to stabilize the peso, but prices have skyrocketed as a result.