Buenos Aires, February 5 (RHC)-- In Argentina, protests are increasing against the new neo-liberal policies of right-wing President Mauricio Macri. One of the country’s top labor unions has called a national strike for February 24th in protest against the wave of public sector jobs lost and the criminalization of demonstrations.

Hugo Yasky, leader of the Argentinean Workers Union, or CTA, said that faced with the recent 500 percent hike in the price of electricity, and the subsequent negative impact on purchasing power, workers cannot impose conditions to discuss collective contracts with the government.

The labor representative criticized the policy of systematic dismissals, as well as the repression by police forces against a group of young people in Bajo Flores, where 11 people were injured, including children between two and 16 years of age.

Aside from the dismissals, Macri’s decisions to spike electricity prices, scrap the country’s media law, cut education spending, increase censorship, and rule by decree, among other moves, have sparked public outrage and a wave of protests against the right-wing policy agenda.