Argentine state workers geared up on Wednesday for a nationwide strike against an austerity drive that slashes their salaries but is designed to head off a debt default.
Argentina's largest state worker labor group, the Argentine workers' confederation (CTA), has vowed its strike will paralyze the public sector bringing schools, hospitals and state-run offices of Latin America's No.3 economy to a grinding halt.
Meanwhile, groups of unemployed continued a second wave of roadblock protests from Argentina's northern border with Bolivia to Patagonia as thousands of unemployed decried the public spending cuts that also hit some pensioners.
We are all in the same situation, said Ms Marta Maffei, head of the Argentine Confederation of Education Workers (CTERA), which is grouped within the CTA. The people are all affected by these cutbacks and by exclusion, misery and poverty. Nobody escapes.
State workers, jobless and striking university professors were all due to march toward Argentina's presidential palace in downtown Buenos Aires today to voice outrage at the cutbacks in this land with unemployment of 16.4 percent and a third of the nation living in poverty.
The cash-strapped government's drive to end deficit spending and slash state salaries and some pensions by up to 13 percent has drawn fierce criticism from Argentine unions who say the poorest will suffer the most.
Argentine markets, which have punished local stocks and bonds in recent weeks amid default fears, are now demanding proof the government will stick to the austerity measures and not buckle in the face of mounting social protest given legislative elections looming in October.