Public sector employees in the State Workers Association union (ATE, by its Spanish acronym) will go on the first strike of President Javier Milei’s government on Friday. They will protest the large public sector cuts announced by Economy Minister Luis Caputo on Tuesday and similar measures that some provincial governors plan to take, as well as the new “anti-protest protocol.”

ATE is active in all Argentina’s provinces, and will decide what strike actions to take on a provincial basis. Rallies are expected across the country.

“The government is affecting social peace with its policies,” said ATE’s national leader Rodolfo Aguiar on Sunday. “These measures are worsening the living conditions of all workers, pensioners and common people.”

On Tuesday, Caputo announced a package of “emergency” measures mostly consisting of government cuts. State employees who have been in their jobs for less than a year will not have their contracts renewed. The number of government ministries and secretariats was halved. He also said the government would reduce “discretionary transfers” from the national government to provinces.

“The large and regressive cuts announced at national level are rapidly replicating in the provinces,” said Aguiar. In a press release, the union pointed to San Luis Governor Claudio Poggi’s decision to split the payment of public workers’ salaries for December and January into quotas.

Aguiar added that payment of the thirteenth salary (aguinaldo) for the public administration “is not guaranteed in most provinces and municipalities.” The thirteenth salary for state employees who work for the national government is guaranteed since the money was included in the 2023 budget.

‘Anti-protest protocol’

On Thursday, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced an anti-protest security protocol authorizing federal security forces to crack down on protests that block roads, irrespective of whether or not it is affecting traffic and whether alternative routes exist. 

Aguiar called the new protocol “a rights violation” and a form of “protest criminalization on behalf of the government.”

“The government has only been in power for seven days,” the union leader said, “but the damage it has already done to people’s living conditions will take years to repair.”

Caputo’s announcements included a 54% devaluation of the peso, which saw the U.S. dollar exchange rate more than double to AR$800. This, along with “indiscriminate” price hikes, “has annihilated state workers’ and pensioners’ income,” said Aguiar.