Argentine Leader Vows to Oppose Scheduled Strike

The hard-pressed but determined government of President Raul Alfonsin attacked critics of its economic reforms Monday, vowing to actively oppose a national strike scheduled for later this month.

“It is the same old movie, but this time it will have a different ending,” Alfonsin said in denouncing a 12-hour stoppage called for March 25.

Defending the wage and price controls that are the keystones of his intensive attempt to curb inflation, Alfonsin is resisting strong pressure not only from organized labor, which seeks pay raises, but also from manufacturers and businessmen, who want higher prices to compensate for increasing costs.

Farmers and ranchers warned Monday of a “general wave of bankruptcies and the disappearance of development.” Said the president of a national manufacturers’ association: “The country cannot live with a frozen economy.”

Last week, the nation’s unions, which form the Peronist-dominated General Confederation of Labor, rejected a government request to defer strike action for two weeks until after a new wage proposal is formalized. They not only scheduled the March 25 strike but also threatened a 36-hour stoppage in April.

Supported by leftist political parties that oppose Alfonsin’s determination to pay regular interest on the country’s $50-billion foreign debt, the confederation paralyzed the country Jan. 24 in the most recent of four national strikes conducted since democratic government returned to Argentina in December, 1983.

The government made no attempt to head off the January strike, which came on a sweltering Friday at the peak of the Southern Hemisphere summer. However, it is taking a hard line against the March 25 strike, which will include mass demonstrations--and the potential for street violence--in major cities.

“We will mobilize to give the political response this strike demands,” Leopoldo Moreau, an Alfonsin supporter in Congress, said. Government pressure against the unions will range from jawboning to congressional debate aimed at undermining strike support.

Public support for Alfonsin’s stabilization program, called the Austral Plan, reached almost 75% after it unexpectedly was enacted last June when inflation was running at a 1,000% annual rate.

Support Slipping

Results of an opinion poll published earlier this month, though, showed that backing for the Austral Plan had fallen to 56% amid growing doubt about the government’s economic statistics.

Basing its calculations on official prices, the government reported a 1.7% increase in the cost of living in February. However, many goods, from chicken to medicines, no longer are widely available at official prices, and Alfonsin’s critics insist that real price increases are two or three times what the government numbers show.

The Austral Plan, which included creation of a new currency and a pledge by the government not to print money to cover its deficit, has helped Argentina make peace with its foreign creditors. Amid international applause, parts of the plan have been copied in stabilization efforts by Peru and Brazil.

Inside Argentina, though, the austerity has aggravated a painful decline in living standards. The government has yet to release figures for the 1985 national economic performance, but private estimates show a decline of about 4%. Alfonsin’s promise of 4% growth for 1986 is openly disputed by many private economists.

5% Wage Increase

By the figures of one economic study group, consumer prices increased 23.2% between the launching of the Austral Plan last June 14 and the end of the year. The government ordered a 5% wage increase in January, and the new hike that it is considering will likely be of about the same magnitude.