Government to dock day’s pay from striking state workers
Argentina’s government will dock a day’s pay from state employees who join the January 24 strike called by the CGT labour confederation. The CGT, the nation’s largest and most influential umbrella union grouping, has called a national strike for next Wednesday in protest of President Javier Milei’s proposed labour reforms.
Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni argued in his daily press conference on Thursday that it is “reasonable for someone who doesn’t work not to collect” their wage. “We’re still waiting for the arguments justifying the strike,” he said witheringly.
The CGT has already outlined its reasoning for the strike, which is to draw attention to sweeping labour reforms outlined in President Milei’s emergency decree and sweeping ‘Omnibus Law’ bill.
Warming to his theme, Adorni said that the government’s freephone telephone denunciation hotline would be active that day for “all those who feel extorted or obligated to strike” so they can “file an anonymous report” with the authorities.
President Milei’s spokesperson also criticised union leader Pablo Moyano.
“I heard Hugo Moyano’s son [Pablo] say that the country is working… I don’t know what a working country means to him or to whom it is working,” Adorni said dismissively.
The spokesperson also referred to President Milei’s trip to Davos for the World Economic Forum, in which he delivered a controversial speech denouncing “socialism,” “collectivism,” “radical feminism,” and climate change theories, among other topics.
Adorni said that “usually, Argentine heads of state went to that kind of forum to save face or to spend some time there – the president has shown what his convictions are and where he intends Argentina to go, and we’re honoured that Argentina is once again a beacon for the Western world.”
According to the spokesperson, “statesmen and businesspeople showed enthusiasm about the change process in Argentina, calling on local politics to be up to this historic moment and accompany the change starting to be forged.”
Adorni was also quizzed about Argentina’s potential road to dollarisation, a key campaign promise that Milei since seems to have cooled on. The question came after Economy Minister Luis Caputo, speaking from the event in the Swiss Alps, said that the “conditions are not yet there” to adopt the US dollar as Argentina’s legal currency.
“The Argentine situation deteriorated massively in the last quarter. There’s no hurry for that dollarisation. The priority is to stabilise the economy,” Caputo maintained.
After being consulted about the topic, Adorni argued that “for months, Milei spoke about the purpose of dollarisation. He’s always spoken of a competition of currencies and that’s our lodestar.”
“This is a road with different steps. Today, the step we’re taking is the Bases Law [sent to Congress]. That will determine the next steps. We’re convinced the law won’t come to fruition, and if it’s not approved, the adjustment will have to be revised,” he explained.