Workers arrive at Plaza de Mayo during a demonstration of truck drivers and other unions of the divided CGT labor union in Buenos Aires on June 26, 2012.
More than half a million public sector workers have observed a total strike over a salary row with the local government in Argentina's largest province, Buenos Aires.
"Strike participation is 100 percent," union leader Roberto Baradel said at a press conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, AFP reported.
Baradel is the secretary general of the CTA SUTEBA Buenos Aires union, which represents public sector workers, teachers, and health workers in Buenos Aires province.
The union called a 48-hour strike starting on Wednesday after the provincial government of Buenos Aires declared it would pay a semiannual bonus in four installments, instead of making a lump sum payment, which had been the norm.
The provincial government has delayed payment of the bonus, which was due in June, to about 550,000 workers.
Baradel said that the strike could continue and schools would not be opened on July 27, when a scheduled vacation ends, if the bonus would not be paid until then.
Authorities say the global economic crisis has slowed down Argentina’s economy that has also caused financial difficulties for the province.
GJH/MHB/AS
