Argentina labor unions' 24-hour strike against President Milei paralyzes daily life

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s biggest trade unions mounted one of their fiercest challenges to the libertarian government of President Javier Milei, staging a mass general strike on Thursday that led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and halted key bus, rail and subway lines.

Main avenues and streets, as well as major transportation terminals were left eerily empty. Most teachers couldn’t make it to school and parents kept their children at home. Trash collectors walked off the job — as did health workers, except for those in emergency rooms.

The 24-hour strike against Milei’s painful austerity measures and contentious deregulation push threatened to bring the nation of 46 million to a standstill as banks, businesses and state agencies also closed in protest.

Thursday’s action marked the second nationwide union strike since Milei came to power last December, slashing spending, laying off government workers, and freezing all public works projects in a bid to rescue Argentina from its worst financial crisis in two decades.

He has also devalued the local currency, stabilizing the peso but also causing prices to soar. Argentina’s annual inflation rate now nears 300% — considered the highest in the world, outpacing even crisis-stricken Lebanon.

The government said transport service disruptions would prevent some 6.6 million people from making it to work. During the morning rush-hour on Thursday, few cars could be seen on streets typically snarled with traffic. Garbage was already piling up on deserted sidewalks.

Milei posted a photo on Instagram holding up a soccer jersey emblazoned with the words “I DON’T STOP.”

The country’s largest union, known by its acronym CGT, said it was staging the strike alongside other labor syndicates “in defense of democracy, labor rights and a living wage.”

Argentina’s powerful unions — backed by Argentina’s left-leaning Peronist parties that have dominated national politics for decades — have led the pushback to Milei’s policies on the streets and in the courts in recent months.

“We are facing a government that promotes the elimination of labor and social rights,” the unions said, seeking to portray Thursday’s strike as an eruption of public outrage over Milei’s free-market policies that have disproportionately affected poor and middle classes.

The government downplayed the disruption as a cynical ploy by its left-wing political opponents.

“They want to keep Argentina on a path of servitude,” said presidential spokesperson Manual Adorni of the union leaders, accusing them of “extorting Argentines to try to return to power.”

Union leaders said they had no choice but to escalate their actions after Argentina’s lower house approved Milei’s state overhaul bill and tax packages last week.

Even as lawmakers scrapped the bill's most controversial articles, unions remain vehemently opposed to parts of the package that relax labor market regulations and grant Milei power to restructure and privatize public agencies. The bill is now being debated in the opposition-dominated Senate.

Rubén Sobrero, general-secretary of the Railway Union, said the unions were prepared to extend the strike if negotiations did not yield results. “If there is no response within these 24 hours, we'll do another 36,” he said.

For months, most recently Monday and Tuesday this week, raucous demonstrations by leftist parties gripped Buenos Aires, the country’s capital — in sharp contrast to the silence prevailing on the streets Thursday.

Argentina’s main international airport warned travelers to check in with their airlines as flight boards in terminals displayed a stream of yellow cancellation notices. The country’s flagship carrier, Aerolíneas Argentinas, announced it had canceled nearly 200 domestic and regional flights and rescheduled over a dozen international flights, affecting 24,000 passengers and costing the airline $2 million.

Only one bus company said it would continue regular service on Thursday. Shortly after the strike began at midnight, police said protesters attacked two of the company’s buses in Buenos Aires, breaking windows but causing no casualties.

“We won’t let them (the unions) break everything we are achieving,” conservative Security Minister Patricia Bullrich posted on social media with a photo of the shattered bus windows.

Experts say that both sides are politically motivated.

In using the strike to assail his rivals, Milei is compensating for worsening economic pressures, said Sebastián Mazzuca, a political science expert at Johns Hopkins University. In bringing the economy to a halt, unions that had their candidate defeated in the last presidential election are flexing their muscles.

“This conflict is sold to the public as a social conflict, but it's really a political conflict,” Mazzuca said. “The outgoing government doesn't want to die. And the new government wants to stay in power.”

Private security personnel stand at the Retiro train station that is empty due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Trains stand idle at the Retiro train station due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A few public buses drive through empty streets near the Retiro train station during a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A person sleeps outside the Retiro train station that is empty due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

An electronic sign with the Spanish message "Service interrupted by forced measures by the CGT," referring to the workers union strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei, at the Retiro train station that is empty due to the strike in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Ad ad featuring Argentine soccer team coach Lionel Scaloni covers a wall at the Retiro train station that is empty due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A driver stands inside a bus at the Retiro long-distance bus terminal that is empty due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A traveler exits the Retiro long-distance bus terminal that is mostly empty due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Trains stand idle at the Retiro train station due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Platforms are empty of commuters at the Retiro train station due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The Retiro train station hall is empty of commuters due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Garbage that city workers have not picked up accumulates outside Constitution Station next to stores that are closed due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The entrance of Constitution Station is closed during a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The platforms at Constitution Station are empty of commuters due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A man sleeps at a subway station entrance that is closed due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Workers stand inside Jorge Newbery International Airport that is empty due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Tables are empty at a cafe that is open for business at Jorge Newbery International Airport during a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Planes sit idle at Jorge Newbery International Airport during a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The Aerolíneas Argentinas counter is closed at Jorge Newbery International Airport during a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The bus stops outside Constitution Station are empty of commuters due to a general strike against President Javier Milei's reforms in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The outside of Constitution Station is empty of traffic due to a general strike against the reforms of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faced a hearing Monday in the High Court in London that could end with him being sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges, or could provide him another chance to appeal his extradition.

The outcome will depend on how much weight judges give to assurances U.S. officials have provided that Assange’s rights won’t be trampled if he goes on trial.

In March, two judges rejected the bulk of Assange's arguments but said he could take his case to the Court of Appeal unless the U.S. guaranteed he would not face the death penalty if extradited and would have the same free speech protections as a U.S. citizen.

The court said that if Assange, who is an Australian citizen, couldn’t rely on the First Amendment then it was arguable his extradition would be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, which also provides free speech and media protections.

The U.S. has provided those reassurances, though Assange's legal team and supporters argue they are not good enough to rely on to send him to the U.S. federal court system.

The U.S. said Assange could seek to rely on the rights and protections of the First Amendment but that a decision on that would ultimately be up to a judge. In the past, the U.S. said it would argue at trial that Assange is not entitled to the constitutional protection because he is not a U.S. citizen.

“The U.S. has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can ‘seek to raise’ the First Amendment if extradited,” his wife, Stella Assange, said. "The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family’s extreme distress about his future — his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in U.S. prison for publishing award-winning journalism.”

Assange, 52, has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of a trove of classified U.S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege that Assange encouraged and helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published.

Commuters emerging from a Tube stop near the courthouse couldn’t miss a large sign bearing Assange’s photo and the words, “Publishing is not a crime. War crimes are.” Scores of supporters gathered outside the neo-Gothic Royal Courts of Justice chanting “Free Julian Assange” and “Press freedom, Assange freedom.”

Some held a large white banner aimed at President Joe Biden, exhorting: “Let him go Joe.”

Assange's lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, though American authorities have said any sentence would likely be much shorter.

Assange’s family and supporters say his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles, which includes seven years spent inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London from 2012 until 2019. He has spent the past five years in a British high-security prison.

Assange’s lawyers argued in February that he was a journalist who exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sending him to the U.S., they said, would expose him to a politically motivated prosecution and risk a “flagrant denial of justice.”

The U.S. government says Assange's actions went way beyond those of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents.

If Assange prevails Monday, it would set the stage for an appeal process likely to extend what has already been a long legal saga.

If the court accepts the word of the U.S., it would mark the end of Assange’s legal challenges in the U.K., though it’s unclear what would immediately follow.

His legal team is prepared to ask the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. But his supporters fear Assange could be transferred before the court in Strasbourg, France, could halt his removal.

Judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson may also postpone issuing a decision.

If Assange loses in court, he still may have another shot at freedom.

Biden said last month that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the case and let Assange return to his home country.

Officials provided no other details but Stella Assange said it was “a good sign” and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comment was encouraging.

FILE - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being taken from court, where he appeared on charges of jumping British bail seven years ago, in London, Wednesday May 1, 2019. Assange faces what could be his final court hearing in England over whether he should be extradited to the United States to face spying charges. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

London court to decide whether WikiLeaks founder Assange is extradited to the US

London court to decide whether WikiLeaks founder Assange is extradited to the US