Argentina-Workers take to the streets.

ARGENTINA-WORKERS TAKE TO THE STREETS.

The CTA Argentine workers’ umbrella union group yesterday staged protests, marches and walkouts across the country to demand salary increases and measures to protect workers from the effects of the global crisis. In the City of Buenos Aires, CTA’s demonstrations snarled traffic in the centre and roads into the the city for seven hours.

"If the government does not hear our demands, we will meet next week to decide a national strike before the end of the month," said CTA’s deputy leader Pedro Wasiejko. The "national day of protest" was strongly supported, Wasiejko said.

CTA leader Hugo Yasky asked the government for a 700-peso emergency salary increase and the protection of "employees and the unemployed from the international crisis."

"The crisis has to find us with some type of protection based on public policies," said Yasky. He demanded "an emergency labour law that forbids dismissals for six months." He also asked for salary increases to be agreed in collective wage bargaining.

"We are not going to get out of this crisis by the devaluation of the peso. If there are no underlying measures, we won’t pull out of the crisis," Yasky said and added that, although "the government is making announcements to redistribute wealth, they are not implementing them."

The CTA and the ATE civil servants union staged a protest outside City Hall in Plaza de Mayo and then participated in a larger demonstration outisde Congress in the afternoon.

The CTERA teachers’ union, health workers, and employees from the Cinema Institute and the Colón Theatre took part in the demonstration.

Traffic collapsed due to the roadblocks staged by CTA demonstrators in the south of 9 de Julio avenue, and the La Plata-Buenos Aires and Ricchieri highways. Demonstrations outside the Labour Ministry on Alem avenue, near the Obelisk, in San Juan and 9 de Julio, and in Belgrano and 9 de Julio caused traffic jams and angered drivers.

Demonstrations, roadblocks and strikes were also staged in several cities of Córdoba, La Pampa, Corrientes, Santiago del Estero, Santa Cruz, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe provinces.

Unlike the larger CGT labour confederation, which met on good terms with with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Tuesday night, the CTA has not been granted legal status as a union and often criticizes the government’s measures.