Argentina to grind to a halt Monday as unions’ strike activity broadens

Workers in the public transport, taxi, aviation, banking and education sectors are among those who will walk off the job on Monday in adherence with the CGT confederation’s strike, the final details of which were confirmed Friday.

The CGT will not lead a protest march, the confederation’s leadership said. Instead, leftist groups will take over the country’s streets, roads and plazas, confirming they would cut access routes into Buenos Aires City before a march ending at the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires at 11am.

The Panamericana and 197 to the north; Acceso Oeste near the Posadas Hospital to the west; and Puente Puerreydón and Buenos Aires-La Plata to the south, will be cut off from the early hours of Monday morning.

Trains, underground subte services, buses, taxis and flights will be suspended, those sectors’ unions confirmed this week.

Bank services will also be affected and teachers unions have confirmed their adherence amid tense and ongoing collective wage bargaining talks in several provinces.

Some leftist groups, including smaller unions that are affiliated to the CGT, will call for “new leadership in the unions” at an event at Lanús Stadium on Monday at 10 am.

“The CGT strike is not an action plan, it has no continuity and will not unify the strength and malaise of the working class,” SUTNA general secretary Alejandro Crespo told Perfil.

The powerful Teamsters’ union was expected to add to the strike activity with a two-day halt to freight and logistics next week across the country. However, its leadership sealed a 25-percent wage increase in negotiations with the Labour Ministry and subsequently cancelled their planned activity.