On February 19, 2026, a 24-hour general strike paralyzed key sectors of the country in opposition to the labor reform promoted by the government of Javier Milei.
The Chamber of Deputies approved the Law with 135 votes, it is necessary to say that the ruling party with its allies has only 101 members of Congress, which indicates that there are votes of some “Peronists” among the 135 who voted in favor.
The unions grouped in the CGT (General Confederation of Workers) denounced the Law as regressive and unconstitutional for proposing measures such as:
- Extension of the working day from 8 up to 12 hours per day
- Modification of the dismissal scheme to lower costs for companies.
- Limitation of the right to strike and on union activity.
The call for a strike was supported by close to 90% according to the unions.
The call was made by the 3 labor federations of Argentina, the CGT, (General Workers Federation) the 2 CTAs (Confederation of Workers of Argentina) that bring together public sector workers’ unions.
Despite the fact that the call was made to stop work without mobilizations, thousands of workers and citizens joined the demonstrations in several cities of the country, with Buenos Aires being the epicenter of the mobilization.
It can be concluded that the Argentine working class still maintains its combativeness, despite the union leaderships.
The mobilized workers, however, had to face the strong repression of the government with tear gas, water cannons and beatings, resulting in clashes between demonstrators and police that left many demonstrators injured and arrested.
The general strike of February 19, in short, showed mass support, and is a step forward in the struggle of the Argentine people against Milei’s neoliberal policies.
The Law aims to eliminate workers’ rights won in years of historical struggle.
The problem of the Argentine working class is that the union leadership is not representing the working class and neither are the political parties and the government has majority in the chambers after the October 2025 elections, a majority based on the alliance itself or bought by some governors. The reform will surely be approved in the coming days.
This means a setback of more than 100 years of workers’ struggles in Argentina that have been paid for in exile, jail and deaths.
The CGT and the convening unions were forced to call this strike as a frontal struggle against the government, defending the rights of the working class and showed the power of the working class.
However, the general strike was a call to strike, but without mobilization. The leaders saw it as simply as saluting the flag in the face of a law that will further ruin the Argentine working class rather than a serious all out struggle .
No doubt the leaders were thinking more about protecting their positions and their privileges with respect to the rest of the working class.
The unions manage many economic resources, especially because they are the ones who administer the provident funds and social benefits. The pusillanimity of the union leaders is evident and so are the signs of betrayal.
If they had indeed wanted to confront the government, from the first moment, all the unions in the country should have been called to permanent mass assemblies and not let all the repression and adjustments that Milei has made pass as if nothing had happened. This strike should have been in preparation for an all out struggle.
The drama of the Argentine working class is that the union leaders are so disconnected from the reality of their bases that they only fight to take care of their particular interests and not for the well-being of society as a whole.
In today’s Argentina, around 50% of the population is in informal employment, which became more evident after the pandemic and lately as a result of the low generation of wealth and employment in the system.
Since Milei’s rise, there has been a significant avalanche of closures of factories and small businesses, as a result of the international opening of the economy and the massive increase of imported products.
Between December 2023 and early 2026, almost 22,000 companies have closed in Argentina. This is a loss of 30 companies per day. This deterioration has mainly affected SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and the construction sectors, adding up to a loss of more than 290,000 jobs.
The construction sector has had a drop of 27% compared to the average of the years 2021 – 2023 with the loss of some 75,000 to 120,000 jobs. Thousands of small companies have been bankrupted by the paralysis of public works.
The general figures show that, between November 2023 and November 2025, 21,938 fewer companies were registered with registered workers in the construction sector.
On the other hand, the announcement of the closure of the historic tire factory as FATE (Argentine Factory of Rubberized Fabrics) marks the collapse of the Argentine economy under the economic policies of Milei and company
This emblematic factory in Argentina was founded in 1940 by a Polish immigrant named Leiser Madanes and originally manufactured rubberized fabrics and in 1945 began to produce tires.
Today, after 86 years, it closed its doors, leaving more than 900 families without income that will swell the poverty figures of this Latin American country.
Argentine families are today with a record level of debt, one in four people who have a debt with a non-financial entity. They are not paying it and one in ten of them are also indebted to a bank.
These figures speak of the fact that the situation of those who have the least is much worse. They can access fewer amounts of credit and even so they are the ones who can pay the least.
In Argentina, people go into debt to buy food. What used to be done to buy appliances, a house or a car, is now used to pay the food bill in the supermarket by credit card.
WHAT’S NEXT?
What follows will be the next pension reform, which will mean leaving retirees even more precarious and the situation looks complex and chaotic.
The attacks Retirement.
Now the government is proposing further attacks that include:
- Increase in the retirement age: It is proposed to raise the retirement age to 70 years for men and women (A cruel way of looking at equality).
- Gender equalization: A gradual increase in the minimum retirement age of women (today 60 years) is proposed to equal that of men (today 65 years) with a scheme of six months per year for a decade.
In the purest Orwell style, the aim is to achieve gender equality, but taking away benefits from women.
- End of moratoriums: the plan seeks to eliminate moratorium pensions for those who do not have 30 years of pension contributions.
In Argentina there is a mechanism that allows those who do not have 30 years of contributions, necessary to retire, to get a pension. It allows them to buy the missing years and pay them in up to 124 installments that are deducted directly from retirement.
By eliminating this mechanism, beneficiaries will exclusively receive the universal benefit for the elderly (PUAM), which is equivalent to 80% of the minimum salary (the minimum today is U$ 262.40), which means that with this counter-reform their income will be U$ 209.92.
Milei has also explored the idea of moving from the current pay-as-you-go system to one of individual contributions, where each worker finances his or her own retirement, although for now this measure has not been deepened, but everything indicates that it is the objective of the administration of Libertad Avanza.
It is important to say and explain that all these measures called “reforms” are in reality COUNTER-REFORMS that are aimed at rolling back the conquests achieved by the working class and for the direct benefit of the big employers.
Today in Argentina, the minimum living income is US$ 253 for full-time workers.
The average income is U$ 698.08 but half of the population only reaches an income of U$ 338.24. As in the rest of Latin American countries, the average amount of income is inflated by a minority who earn millionaire salaries.
The working class is weakened by the lack of powerful organizations with a leadership that can confront the advance of the right and the bourgeoisie against the workers.
A glimmer of hope can be glimpsed in the consolidation of a new point of reference.
Frente Sindical de Unidad, Various sectors have formed an alliance for action that goes beyond the traditional structures of the CGT and the two CTAs. (Confederation of Workers of Argentina)
This bloc includes more than 100 labor organizations that expressed their rejection of the “counter-reform.”
If the general strike of February 19 had the “success of calling” it is mainly due to this new block of action a prominent union leader who currently serves as General Secretary of the Metallurgical Workers’ Union (UOM)
As leader of the UOM, he has maintained a critical stance against the economic policies of the Milei government and has demanded that the CGT take more forceful action in the face of attacks on labor rights.
Every day it is increasingly clear to the Argentine and world working class that only a frontal struggle against the capitalist system can provide a solution to all the problems of humanity.
Only a truly socialist, democratic, ecological society under the control of the organizations of the working class can lead humanity to fully develop.