Recovering Argentinean president dogged by labor strikes and protests

A personal conflict between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the country's most powerful union boss began to magnify on Monday as a series of strikes were called to protest job cutbacks and the government's worker policies.

Hugo Moyano, the president of the influential umbrella CGT union, and his son Pablo, who is head of the teamsters, attacked Fernández de Kirchner, whom they accuse of trying to break organized labor.

"They want to divide the CGT so that they can remove my father," said Pablo Moyano. "The name Moyano has been become a bad word for this government." At the crux of the current teamsters conflict is the firing of some 200 workers from Correos Argentinos due to a lack of funds. Truck drivers cut off highways and other roads in many parts of Buenos Aires and in other cities.

On Wednesday, a group of airport workers - mostly security personnel and maintenance employees - set up a blockade on the main road to Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport to protest salaries and working conditions. They unblocked the road after Labor Ministry officials agreed to meet with them.

At the same time, a Canadian mining company said it would put a proposed gold project in the northwestern La Rioja province on hold following weeks of protests by local residents. The mine, which had government backing, was in the planning stages. The residents, including the local unions, were protesting due to a lack of information about the mine project.

President Fernández de Kirchner has not made any statements about the latest wave of strikes and protests called by the CGT. She has limited her agenda as she recovers from thyroid surgery, which she underwent last month. But during her inaugural speech last December she warned the unions: "In this country, there is the right to strike, but not to extort or to blackmail."

Hugo Moyano, a once-keen supporter of Fernández de Kirchner and her husband, the late President Néstor Kirchner, pulled his support for her last year over her labor policies.

Fernández de Kirchner is also reportedly having to decide whether to nationalize Repsol's Argentinean unit YPF in an effort to stem capital flight and bolster foreign reserves, according to a local newspaper. The move is likely to set off more labor unrest.