Jan 29 || TC - Argentine railway workers staged a strike on Tuesday, demanding higher wages, a move that has drawn criticism from President Javier Milei’s administration, which blamed the action for disrupting the travel plans of around a million passengers.
The six-hour strike, from 9 am to 3 pm local time (1200 GMT to 2100 GMT), led by the La Fraternidad union, resulted in the suspension of local and regional train services in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.
The strike, announced on January 21, was in response to workers' demands for a wage increase, along with an additional 153,000 pesos (approximately 145 US dollars) to help cover the cost of basic food items and mitigate the impact of inflation on their purchasing power.
Trenes Argentinos Operaciones, the state-owned railway operator, issued a statement on Monday warning that the strike would disrupt the travel plans of nearly a million passengers.
The company added, "This strike is expected to result in a loss of more than 100 million pesos in fare payments from passengers unable to complete their journeys."
Railway staff are asking for a 46 percent wage increase to offset the inflation-driven erosion of their earnings since the new government under Milei took office in December 2023. However, the government has proposed only a 3.5 percent increase.
Despite the strike, long-distance services, such as those running between Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata, were not affected during the strike period.
Trenes Argentinos Operaciones manages several urban passenger lines, including the Sarmiento, Mitre, San Martin, Roca, Belgrano Sur, and Tren de la Costa lines. It also oversees regional services in areas like Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Neuquén, and Córdoba, as well as long-distance routes between Buenos Aires and several cities. Additionally, it has an agreement with Casimiro Zbikoski for the Posadas-Encarnación service.