Argentines Demand Work While Marching on St. Cajetan Day

The South American country faces rising unemployment and wages that continue to lag behind inflation.

On Friday, thousands of people gathered in Buenos Aires at the Shrine of St. Cajetan, the patron saint of “bread and work” in Argentina, to pray for decent jobs amid a difficult labor market.

Located in the Liniers neighborhood of the capital, St. Cajetan Church opened its doors early Friday morning, and since then there has been a steady flow of pilgrims seeking employment or giving thanks for having found a job.

Among those who visited the shrine was Buenos Aires Province Gov. Axel Kicillof, one of the country’s leading opposition figures, who told reporters that “wages are not enough to cover basic needs” because of the economic model of far-right President Javier Milei, who is leading the country “into a dead end.”

Since 2016, social and labor organizations have held a march on this day to protest growing job insecurity. Labor unions and social organizations will march from the Liniers shrine, where there will be a blessing of work tools, to Mayo Square, in front of Argentina’s executive headquarters, where they will hold a rally under the slogan, “Peace, Bread, Land, Shelter and Jobs.”

Heridos, lesionados detenidos es el saldo de una feroz represión contra miles y miles de manifestantes en #Argentina que realizaron una marcha pacífica donde sólo se veía un mar de banderas bajo la consigna “La patria no se vende”, y se encontraron ante un enorme operativo… pic.twitter.com/5jAQVde8iE

— David de la Paz 戴维 (@daviddelapaz) August 7, 2026

The text reads, “Wounded, injured, detained is the result of a fierce repression against thousands and thousands of protesters in Argentina who carried out a peaceful march where only a sea of flags could be seen under the slogan ‘The Country is Not for Sale’, and found themselves facing a huge repressive operation with the participation of all the security forces. For three hours they fired rubber bullets, tear gas and used water cannons against the crowd, which braved the rain, cold and wind to reject the draft law on the inviolability of private property, which would end what remains of sovereignty and which was still being debated in Congress.”

The organizing social organizations said this year’s march is taking place in “a critical social scenario” because of “the dismantling of social assistance, the suspension of food deliveries to community kitchens and the paralysis of integration projects in working-class neighborhoods.”

“In the face of the cruelty of austerity and planned impoverishment, organized workers continue the struggle for dignity and work,” they said.

According to a recent report by the Argentine Center for Political Economy, since Milei took office as president at the end of 2023 through last April, there has been a “significant destruction of the productive and labor fabric,” with 28,262 businesses closing and 341,396 registered jobs lost.

Argentina’s unemployment rate rose to 7.8% in the first quarter of the year, its second consecutive increase, amid the destruction of formal jobs and persistent labor informality, which reached a record 44.2%.

In fact, jobs are growing only in the informal sector and among self-employed workers, at a time when many Argentines say their incomes are not enough to make it to the end of the month and household debt and delinquency rates are rising. The wages of formal private-sector workers rose 29.3% year over year in May, once again lagging behind inflation, which stood at 33.2%.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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