Over 100 unions and social organizations will march to the Ministry of Deregulation and State Transformation at midday on Wednesday to protest President Javier Milei’s austerity measures. As people descend to the ministry led by Federico Sturzenegger, it will be the first action from  a newly created multi-sector front that aims to fight back against the government’s policies.

The Fighting Front for Sovereignty, Dignified Work and Fair Salaries was created in early June and has been gathering recruits, including powerful unions such as truck drivers’ Camioneros, the oil production workers federation, steelworkers’ UOM, bankers, and the State Workers Association (ATE, by its Spanish initials). Also present are other social organizations and some public universities.

“It makes us hopeful to think that we can all get together,” Daniel Yofra, head of the Oil and Cotton Ginning Workers, told the Herald. The federation is one of the leading groups within the new front. “There are three very clear mottos: sovereignty, work and salary. The working class has a lot of problems, but those are the three that groups most workers today.”

During an event with the press ahead of the march, he said that most employed people are “under the line of poverty” and that there are “more and more unemployed people,” while “over 10,000 SMEs have shut down.”

“We are not talking about the government leaving; we’re talking about the government changing its direction,” Yofra said. “Evidently, their boat is pointing against the working class, and it’s slowly destroying us.”

In a statement, the Fighting Front said that Argentina is going through one of its “hardest times” in history. “The people’s democratic, free and representative institutions are being systematically attacked by the national government.”

The statement questioned the labor and production measures taken by Sturzenegger, “leading the working people to one of the worst social and economic degradations that the Homeland has known,” and said that they “must not remain paralyzed while the government’s institutional violence lambasts” against historic conquered rights.

Unity against inaction

Yofra highly questioned the “inaction” of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), saying that in recent months it is not currently calling for “any meetings” to discuss the current economic, social and political situation. “We’re trying to get together as a front independently of the union centrals so that we can fight this government.”

In this context, Yofra said, his “biggest concern” is that the government’s austerity measures will lead to an economic collapse and social outburst akin to the one that happened in the early 2000s in Argentina. At the time, “39 people were killed” by police in protests, he recalled.

The oil federation is part of the CGT and Yofra said that if the confederation called for a march, they would “march with them.” Since the start of Milei’s government, the CGT has called for three general strikes — the latest of which was in April — but Yofra argued that the workers movement needs “a fighting plan” prolonged in time. He cited how his federation has carried out indefinite length strikes of up to 25 days in the past. The oil workers have one of the best salary negotiations in Argentina thanks to their protest power as a key sector.

The aggressiveness of Milei’s government against unions and labor norms seems to be bringing together many sectors that, until now, were not particularly united. In September 2024, the two factions of the Argentine Workers Central (CTA-A and CTA-T) announced they were working towards becoming unified again after 15 years separated. The two CTAs were already part of a union front created during Mauricio Macri’s government called FRESIMONA — which hasn’t been active in 2025 — and are now part of the new Fighting Front.

“This is a novelty: the largest union front since Milei came into power is coming together,” said ATE head Rodolfo Aguiar in a press release. “The government should be worried: workers are starting to agree. Our main challenge is starting to piece together all of the fights in the country.”

Aguiar added that the march marks “the start of a fighting plan” and said that the government’s trade opening is savage, destroying SMEs and the entire industry.”

After the march, the front will join pensioners in their usual Wednesdays protest outside Congress. Strikes and other measures will be carried out in other provinces. The ATE members of the Garrahan children’s hospital are also undergoing a 24-hour strike that began Wednesday morning.