Thousands of scientists in Argentina strike to protest budget cuts

Scientists from labs across Argentina stayed home yesterday, joining a nationwide strike against the government’s latest round of austerity measures.

One of their key rallying points: a call to restore lost opportunities for young researchers who began their education during a time of high investment in science - but now have little hope of continuing their careers in Argentina.

General strike

The walkout was part of a wider general strike that took place nationwide yesterday - the fifth since the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration took office in late 2015.

Research institute heads estimated thousands of scientists participated.

Since coming to power in 2015, President Macri has cut short efforts by his predecessors to grow the scientific community.

In the latest blow, the National Research Council (CONICET) announced on 5 April that it had a mere 450 new first-time investigator positions available for this year’s roughly 2,600 Ph.D. graduates and former postdocs—leaving a record number of trainees without jobs.

Macri's predecessor, former President Cristina Kirchner, had left office with nearly 1,000 such posts annually, and projections that about 1,400 new CONICET posts would now be available.

Without a position with CONICET, which employs more than 20,000 researchers, young scientists have few opportunities: 253,000 jobs have been lost since Macri's carry-trade debt bubble imploded a year ago.

And salaries for those lucky enough to get a job this year will be worth roughly half as much as they were in 2015, because research salaries have failed to keep up with inflation currently running at 55%.

At: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/thousands-scientists-argentina-strike-protest-budget-cuts

Marchers flooded the streets of Buenos Aires and of cities nationwide today to protest President Mauricio Macri’s austerity measures.

Despite deep cuts, Argentina's federal budget deficit is up 25% so far this year, as the deepest recession since the 2001 collapse erodes revenues.