The CGT threatens to complicate the Christmas atmosphere. The union decided to abandon the precarious “Zen” truce with the government and return to the familiar liturgy: the Plaza de Mayo, the drums and the threat of condemnation. After the withdrawal of Gerardo Martínez from the Uocra from the May agreement and the announcement of the labor modernization law became known, the unions declared this openly War against labor reform. A long war, a battle plan that began in March on Thursday, December 18th in the Plaza de Mayo, and if approved, it could end in lawsuits in the labor courts.
The battle will have multiple fronts and with something Milei already suspected: every item in her project will be a battle. On Thursday, December 18th, at 3 p.m., the Plaza de Mayo will be the venue for the first round.
The CGT, the 62 organizations, the CTA, the Autonomous CTA, ATE, the banking sector and the entire trade union ecosystem, which saw in the ruling party’s project a sufficient provocation to unite what was scattered, will converge there. The government, for its part, wants to meet in the Senate on the same day to approve the reform. Nothing more symbolic: during Inside you choose, outside you measure the street.
The street noise doesn’t bother Milei, but rather she intones it. According to propaganda consultants led by Santiago Caputo, the march with all the old faces of the trade union movement is a photo that delays the government and gives it new impetus.
A labor reform that united what was fought against
The government deleted the article that concerned the union fund – that solidarity contribution that, despite its name, is usually the least supportive of other people’s wallets – but there was no case. The signal was ignored. The unions consider the entire project to be a destructive machine for the entire labor law. And they don’t say it quietly.
A union leader, one of those who speaks “off-camera” but shouts the same thing, summed it up most brutally: “The law was put together by the employers’ law firms. It’s a Russian salad. They save on taxes, and on the unions they want to defund us and put an end to the labor movement. They are cannibals.”
The main points of the labor reform project presented by the government
Another leader warned in the same diplomatic tone that the CGT, the CTA and the 62 organizations were already sworn in: When the law comes out, it ends up in court. The plan doesn’t end with the plaza; ends in Comodoro Py. Or, if necessary, in court.
The unions’ objections are so numerous that it is difficult to list them without taking a deep breath:
- Change in the right to strike,
- Limiting gatherings,
- extension of working hours,
- Changes in joint ventures,
- Redefining compensation,
- weakening of collective agreements,
- the controversial dismissal fund as compensation for layoffs.
The list goes on, as the project includes 79 pages and a chapter for each issue of the labor movement. In the truest sense of the word, an article “for every company,” is the ironic admission of the Peronist senators themselves.
The Senate: Mathematics, Sweat and Tears
As the CGT puts together the mobilization, The Senate’s Peronism refines its calculators. You need three votes to block the project. It’s not epic, it’s arithmetic.
The 28 Peronist senators are in resistance mode, plus five non-aligned and a few provincial senators who are highly quoted. In the ruling party, on the other hand, it is repeated that the commissions have already been set up, that the opinion will be published next Tuesday and that it could be discussed in the Chamber on Monday the 22nd, while in the Chamber of Deputies the draft budget law 2026 is being discussed.
Everything is possible for them. For the rest of the Senate there is simply no material time: the project came too late, the committees do not exist and the negotiations are a labyrinth. Peronism will try to use all delaying strategies so that the period of extraordinary sessions ends.
Amid this chaos, Senator Jorge Capitanich of Chaco decided to become the resistance’s academic spokesman. He believes that the project should be divided: labor on the one hand and taxes on the other. That’s what he says The reform combines tax breaks for businesses, exemptions for luxury goods – such as yachts that travel far from work – and a tax policy that he says will set back tax collection.
The governors are watching in silence for now. But the head of the autonomous CTA, Hugo “Cachorro” Godoy, has already left them a warning: “If you approve this, you will be shooting yourself in the foot.” The Argentine trade union movement is always ready to make the parliamentary climate more difficult for the adoption of other laws that the government needs, such as the budget, the mattress plan, tax, penal and glacier reform.
The content: the fine print of labor reform that angers the CGT
The project redefines the calculation of compensation, excludes bonuses, bonuses and vacations and sets strict limits: three average salaries of the agreement as an upper limit and a lower limit of 67%. Creates the Employment Assistance Fund (FAL) with a mandatory contribution of 3%. Some union leaders joked about the acronym FAL, which stands for “Light Automatic Rifle,” used by members of the armed forces. In addition, they did not stop joking about the 3% percentage, also mentioned in Diego Spagnuolo’s audios about the alleged bribes that Karina Milei would demand for the surcharges on medicines for the National Agency on Disability.
He Right to strike is restricted in essential services; Approval from the employer is now required for meetings; delegates only have ten union hours; Blocking companies is a serious violation. Ultraactivity is reduced and the famous Hour bankevery employment consultant’s wet dream.
Vacation Announced 30 days in advance, rest period between October and April and a minimum of seven days per section complete the menu. The Work modernization “Promised” is more like a major operation without anesthesia, as Peronism summarizes it.
The final tension: parliamentary discipline vs. union street
“We have to show strength,” says the Cegetista leadership. The idea of a strike was shelvedbut the march will be the first movement of the battle plan. A show of force to condition parliamentary technology.
In the Senate, however, which is close to Vice President Victoria Villarruel, many are already talking about another “basic law” if you look at the draft laws that the government wants to deal with in such a short time.: long, tiring, unpredictable.
The only thing that is certain is that next Thursday, the 18th, the Plaza de Mayo will be a sounding board. And that labor reform has already entered the dangerous zone where any article can become not only a losing vote, but also a political rupture.
The government must show governability. The unions must assert their power to determine the passage of future laws, and Peronism needs three senators to stop labor reform and seek its first political victory after the October 26 election defeat and the party’s splintering.
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