Buenos Aires, April 6 (NA) – The Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) announced a national protest day for this Tuesday with roadblocks and access cuts across the country. The trigger is the Executive's decision, as of April 9, to eliminate the complementary social salary of $78,000, a figure that, according to the union collective, condemns nearly a million people to indigence. Under the slogan 'Work without a salary is slavery,' the organization that brings together cartoneros, canteen workers, and cooperative members seeks to wage a cultural battle against the official discourse. Social movements assure that the protest will be massive and that the blockades will be felt at the key access points to the City of Buenos Aires and in the main provincial capitals. In the words of the union secretary Johana Duarte to the Argentine News Agency, the decision of the portfolio co-headed by Sandra Pettovello 'directly attacks the humblest workers and expresses the limitless cruelty of this national government.' According to their estimates, the Javier Milei administration has already 'expelled' more than 300,000 workers from formal employment, who now pressure a popular economy that is already defunded and without a safety net. The denunciation points to an alleged maneuver by the Ministry of Human Capital to 'steal the salary' from more than 900,000 workers, by disconnecting the Complementary Social Salary from the Minimum, Vital, and Mobile Salary, which in practice diluted the purchasing power of the sector. A showdown for control of the street This Tuesday's mobilization presents a direct challenge to the anti-picket protocol implemented by Patricia Bullrich when she headed the Ministry of Security. 'We are not beneficiaries of any plan, we are the working class that invented work where neither the State nor the market knew what to do,' they stated in a harsh communiqué they disseminated through social networks. The organization not only demands income for the popular economy but also links the sector's crisis to the general deterioration of the labor market. This is money that workers will stop using in local businesses, which will automatically cause a local recession of 6 to 10% in consumption, which will translate into an increase in poverty in this province by 8 to 15 points,' they concluded.
