BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Thousands of workers gathered in the Argentine capital on Thursday, beating drums and chanting slogans a day before International Workers’ Day, in a protest organized by the powerful General Confederation of Labor. The union, known by its Spanish acronym CGT, marched to the government headquarters to oppose President Javier Milei’s recent overhaul of the nation’s labor code — a keystone of his free-market economic program.
“We want to say to this government, enough is enough,” CGT leader Octavio Argüello told the crowd. “Our patience has run out, Mr. President.”
The demonstration was the latest in a string of union actions against the labor law that Milei’s administration pushed through congress in February. The legislation, a major political victory for the libertarian president, aims to make it easier for employers to hire and fire workers. It extends probation periods during which employees can be dismissed without benefits, allows companies to replace overtime pay with time off, and permits workdays of up to 12 hours. It also curtails the right to strike and limits the power of national unions to bargain industry-wide wages.
The new rules have struck a nerve in a country where organized labor helped found the Peronist movement that has dominated Argentine politics since the 1940s. Nearly half of all workers labor off the books, and critics say that decades of costly, union-backed severance laws discouraged companies from formal hiring. Yet the reform has also triggered layoffs that are now feeding the resistance.
“Costs keep going up and our salaries stay the same,” said 51-year-old bus driver Sergio Aguirre as he marched on Thursday. “We survive on overtime pay. Now they want to take that away with the rest of our benefits.”
Argentina’s formal labor market has shed roughly 200,000 jobs since Milei took office in late 2023, and the unemployment rate climbed to 7.5% in the last quarter of 2025, a year-over-year increase of more than a percentage point, according to the Ministry of Human Capital. Fundación Pro Tejer, a non-profit representing textile manufacturers, reported this week that textile production fell nearly 30% in the first two months of the year, leaving seven of every ten sewing machines idle.
“We don’t have an alternative,” said 47-year-old Manuel Correa, who works at a textile factory on the outskirts of Buenos Aires that has cut 58% of its workforce — 350 employees — over the past two years. “We’ll stay in the street until the government changes or backtracks.”
Milei has dismissed the signs of economic strain. “We receive international recognition for our achievements,” he told an economic conference late Wednesday. Reports of economic challenges, he added, are “absurdities spread by the media.”
The government’s supporters note that industrialized economies around the world are grappling with inflationary pressure and that Argentina’s previous Peronist governments left behind triple-digit inflation and a sprawling informal economy. But for the workers rallying Thursday, the promises of a free-market revival ring hollow.
“The economy is not growing as strongly as the government thought it would,” said Marcelo J. García, Americas director for the geopolitical risk consultancy Horizon Engage. “The majority of Argentines may feel that they’re not seeing the benefits of Milei’s economic program. That’s Milei’s biggest political risk at the moment.”
Union leaders say they are not finished fighting the labor law in court. After a judge last week overturned an injunction that had suspended the reform, the CGT is planning a further appeal that could reach the Supreme Court. Thursday’s marchers signaled they intend to keep the pressure on as the country heads toward a potentially difficult winter.