The Great Beverage Strike of 2005

Truckers block a Coca-Cola plant (Photo from La Nacion)

"Buenos Aires" is often mistranslated as "Good Airs" or "Good Winds" when the actual meaning, in ancient Quechua, is "Land of Work Stoppages." Strikes are as much a part of the Argentine ethos as tango, red meat and dog walkers, a kind of background noise that's almost as intrinsic as alcohol is to New Orleans.

The most recent strike du jour has been one involving beverage companies and the trucking union, which began when the union demanded a 50% salary increase and, to make their point, blockaded beverage plants. During the action, soda and beer prices rose 10% and the beverage shortage led to awkwardly comic signs in our local Disco supermarket advising parched shoppers that we would be limited to two bottles of beer during each store visit; the cafeteria at my language school offered no liquids save for coffee and boxed juice; and today at lunch our local "Casa de Lunch" only offered fizzy water, no soda, sorry kids.

Happily, last night beverage producers and the trucking union resolved the strike. The drivers will get a 20% salary increase plus various raises in overtime and the like. And by Tuesday, they say, we'll have back our regular supply of beer.

And that's what really matters.