Argentina’s far-right president, Javier Milei, continues his ‘chainsaw massacre’ against workers’ rights. Despite large demonstrations and two general strikes, a new ‘reform’ of labour legislation has been approved, attacking a series of rights.
“This bill sets us back a hundred years. A hundred years in individual rights, in collective rights. It is an endeavour that focuses, essentially, on transferring economic resources from workers to employers,” Jorge Sola, a leader of the largest trade union, the CGT, told Agência Brasil.
The Argentinian working class has repeatedly shown that it is ready to fight, but it lacks a leadership prepared to fight to the end.
After a wave of demonstrations in 2024, including two strong general strikes against Milei’s first major package of attacks, the ‘omnibus law,’ the trade union leadership, dominated by Peronism (Argentina’s traditional centre-left), declared a ‘truce.’ All that was missing was an agreement with Milei, who continued his attacks.
Despite some economic recovery in 2025 and a lower inflation rate, Milei’s government, which was in a minority in Congress, had great difficulty passing its proposals last year and lost support in opinion polls after a series of corruption scandals. Inflation also began to rise and a new currency crisis began to loom.
A new general strike was held in April, but instead of intensifying the struggle, Peronism focused all its energies on the midterm elections in October. However, Trump offered economic aid that managed to postpone a new financial crisis, and Milei won a landslide victory in the elections, as many voters on the left abstained from voting.
Strengthened by the elections, Milei went back on the offensive, mainly by attacking labour rights. The package of laws presented at the end of 2025 contained 200 proposals that attacked rights won through much struggle. Employers will have the right to extend the working day to 12 hours without overtime pay (with time banking), establish payment in exchange for meeting targets that could lead to wage reductions, and divide up holiday allowances (with only 7 consecutive days).
It will also be more difficult to go on strike. Several new areas are considered ‘essential’, meaning only 25% of workers can join a strike, including all exporting companies. Union meetings during working hours to vote on strikes can only be held with the consent of employers and with salary deductions. Local agreements, where the employer has more leverage, may remove rights won in national agreements. This is just to cite a few examples. Some even more extreme proposals were withdrawn during negotiations, such as the employer’s right to pay wages in housing or food!
It was possible to defeat the bill
A major day of protests with demonstrations had already been held on 18 December, but union leadership then placed greater emphasis on negotiations. When the Senate held its first vote on the bill on 11 February, new protests were held, but without a general strike. In the meantime, the union leadership negotiated a proposal that would allow union dues to be collected from non-unionised workers. In other words, while the working class is suffering a historic attack, they are negotiating a proposal that benefits the bureaucracy, without strengthening union organisation!
However, the CGT was pressured to call a general strike on 19 February, the date on which the proposal would be voted on in the Chamber of Deputies. This call was made after it became public that the legislative package included a reduction of up to 50% in sick pay, which caused enormous outrage. Some senators who voted in favour of the proposal apologised, saying they had not read or understood it!
The general strike on 19 February was a great success. According to the unions, 90% of workers took part. All transport, including international flights, public services, education and parts of industry, came to a standstill.
After the strike, the attack on sick pay was withdrawn. In total, 30 proposals were withdrawn or reformulated. Instead of intensifying the struggle to defeat the whole package, the CGT leadership used this very partial retreat as an excuse to return to negotiations and promised to take legal action against the worst proposals.
On the day of the final vote in the Senate, 27 February, a smaller general strike was called by the United Trade Union Front (FreSU), made up of about 100 unions led by a more radical wing of the Peronist bureaucracy, but the package was approved.
It is important to note that the attacks were approved with the support of some Peronist congressmen and some Peronist governors. Although they are called ‘traitors’ by the Peronist leadership, the official leadership is also not waging a real fight to stop Milei’s attacks. Instead, they are trying to channel the anger towards the next elections in 2027. But if Milei manages to continue implementing his attacks, demoralisation could lead to a new electoral defeat, as in 2023 and 2025.
Success for whom and until when?
The international media tries to paint Milei’s Argentina as a success story. Of course, the market is satisfied with all the attacks, but for ordinary people, the reality is different.
Real wages are 20% lower than in 2017, and inflation is rising again, month after month. After reaching its lowest level in May, with monthly inflation at 1.5%, it rose to 2.9% in January. But official inflation does not show the real picture. The head of Argentina’s national statistics institute, INDEC, resigned in February when the Milei government refused to update the way inflation is calculated. The last time the inflation index was updated was in 2004. Therefore, the price of printed newspapers, DVD rentals, etc. is included, but not the number of new internet services or mobile phone subscriptions.
Although the official unemployment rate has remained relatively stable, the labour market is deteriorating. According to union calculations, 21,000 companies have closed and 300,000 jobs have been lost since Milei took office. Industrial production fell by just over 3% last year. The government is investing everything to make Argentina an exporter of raw materials, while local industry is in decline. Vehicle production, for example, has fallen by 23%, and after Milei reduced import duties on tyres from 35% to 16%, the owners announced that the Fate tyre factory, with 85 years of history, would close, directly affecting 920 workers and another 2,500 jobs at suppliers. Workers are now occupying the factory and demanding its reopening.
Milei has made it easier for money to leave the country, which meant that, for the first time in 22 years, Argentina had a negative investment balance last year, when large companies such as HSBC bank, Carrefour and Exxon pulled out from the country. On the other hand, investment in mining and fossil fuels is increasing. Milei is in the process of deregulating mining in protected glacial areas to favour the extraction of lithium and copper, which will have major consequences for the environment and threaten important water reserves. The proposal has already been approved in a first vote in the Senate.
Argentina may soon face a new financial crisis. Growth is slowing and, despite official figures of $45 billion in foreign exchange reserves, the IMF says the real balance is -$16 billion if short-term loans are included. This could lead to further fall in the value of the currency and fuel inflation, which will hit the population hard.
Therefore, we can expect a continuing struggle. 24 March marks the 50th anniversary of the 1976 military coup and could be another big day of protest.
The working class in Argentina has suffered important defeats, but it is not beaten. What is needed is a strategy to win. The lack of a strong and consistent left-wing alternative that raises a socialist program means that the struggle is not being taken to its conclusion: completely blocking Milei’s attacks by bringing down the government.
Peronism has no alternative to the chaos of capitalism and carried out a series of attacks when it was in government. The Left and Workers’ Front – Unity (FIT-U), which incorporates various groups of the revolutionary left, has failed to create a united force outside the electoral arena to challenge the Peronist bureaucracy in the daily struggle, to point the way forward in the struggle and to lay the foundations for a new mass workers’ party with a socialist program. It is a race against time, in which the risks increase with each new crisis.