Bloomberg: Argentine Unions Strike Against Govt Economic Policy Top World News 11/23 12:49 Argentine Unions Strike Against Govt Economic Policy (Update2) By Helen Murphy Buenos Aires, Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Demonstrators blocked bridges and roads across Argentina as the nation's militant labor unions led a 36-hour strike to protest the government's failure to end a two-year recession and reduce unemployment. Hard-line unions, headed by militant truckers' leader Hugo Moyano, set up roadblocks in Buenos Aires and other parts of the country to disrupt transport. Shortly after the midday start to the protest, there was little traffic on the normally congested streets of central Buenos Aires. Few buses were circulating. ``There's so much hunger and so much misery in this country and no way of improving with this government,'' Moyano told a throng of drum-banging supporters in Congress Plaza. ``If there's no change, I assure you, there will be more struggle.'' The unions oppose recent plans by President Fernando de la Rua to cut spending and change the pension and health-care systems, measures that may lead to reduced salaries, increase the 15.4 percent unemployment rate and cut worker benefits. The unions are demanding fresh measures to stimulate the struggling economy and create new jobs. The spending cuts are part of 11-month old government's efforts to reduce the budget deficit, a key to negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and other lenders to obtain an emergency credit line. The facility, which some analysts say could be of as much as $25 billion, would help Latin America's biggest borrower meet payments on its $123.5 billion debt. ``This is the most important strike in the last 15 years.'' said political analyst Rosendo Fraga. The strike will widen tomorrow when it will be joined by the General Labor Confederation, which groups most of Argentina's labor unions. Strike leaders said the protests will disrupt bus, train and air transport services across the country. Authorities haven't provided figures on how much support the strike has. ``We just can't go on like this any more,'' said Jose Martinez, a former textile worker and father of four, on his way Congress Plaza. ``My children are suffering because I can't find work, and this government isn't doing anything to help me.'' `People Are Afraid' The government said there could be violence and other forms of intimidation against those who don't join the strike. ``People are afraid,'' said Labor Minister Patricia Bullrich. ``But any acts of violence against workers will be treated as illegal. To prevent the right to work is totally criminal.'' In Buenos Aires, demonstrators burned tires and closed roads and a number of highways, including the main drag into the city, according to television station Todo Noticias. Few traders made it to the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, where the select Merval Index opened unchanged in light trading. Officials barred the doors to the bolsa to protect the building from protesters and said they were unsure whether trading would open tomorrow. ``There's no trading going on, no prices, nothing,'' said Daniel Vogado, a trader at Banco Velox. ``We'll all be digesting the impact of this strike over the weekend.'' This is the second nationwide strike involving all the major unions since de la Rua took office in December and may cost the country $800 million from lost production, said Ricardo Ostuni, de la Rua's spokesman. More than 100 buses were burned yesterday in an effort by activists to intimidate bus companies, which, in the past, haven't supported strikes, according to Bullrich. ``Moyano has been trying to cause trouble for the government from the first day,'' Economy Minister Jose Luis Machinea told local Radio Continental. ``There's an attitude of intimidation, of bullying, that's preventing people not going to work without being able to decide for themselves.'' The protest precedes the likely arrival this weekend of an International Monetary Fund mission to discuss whether the government's latest plans to cut spending and reduce some taxes meet conditions for a new credit line. Moyano has criticized the IMF's interference in economic policy and blames the fund for forcing the government to take austerity measures in exchange for the credit line. The latest government measures include a five-year freeze on federal, provincial and municipal spending to eliminate the budget deficit by 2005, the phasing out of the state pension system, and a program to allow private companies to compete with state and union-run health-care systems. Unions oppose proposed changes that would increase competition within the health system and curb their control over workers' health-care plans, their main source of income.