BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s biggest trade unions mounted one of their fiercest challenges to the libertarian government of President Javier Milei, staging a mass general strike on Thursday that led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and halted key bus, rail and subway lines. Main avenues and streets, as well as major transportation terminals were left eerily empty.

The 24-hour strike against Milei’s contentious austerity measures and deregulation push threatened to bring the nation of 46 million to a standstill as banks, businesses and state agencies closed in protest.

Most teachers couldn’t make it to school and parents kept their kids at home. Trash collectors walked off the job — as did health workers, except for those in emergency rooms.

The government said transport service disruptions would prevent some 6.6 million people from making it to work. That was apparent during the morning rush-hour Thursday as few cars could be seen on streets typically snarled with traffic. Garbage was already piling up on deserted sidewalks.