"Employees of Argentine tire company Fate clashed with police officers at a demonstration in Buenos Aires on Friday, where they were protesting the closure of the company as well as labour reforms that the ruling party is seeking to pass in the Senate on the same day. Footage shows protesters confronting police, who dispersed the protest using pepper spray and rubber bullets. Protester Willy Vater described the labor reform as "anti-worker, anti-people," and stated that it "takes away all the rights we had." "I mobilise with a lot of anger, with a lot of need, and I call on all comrades, all the workers of the country to jump in and fight for what is theirs," he explained. "In defence of FATE jobs and the hundreds of thousands of families who will be affected by this labour reform. They are an example of struggle, this factory must not close because just as there are lawmakers making deals in Congress, they will have to apply it in the workplaces and they will find us working women in the front lines of the resistance to prevent it, just as retirees are," another protester said. Protesters blocked 9 de Julio and Corrientes avenues near the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, and several of them headed toward Congress to continue mobilising against the labour reform. A police officer was reportedly injured during the clashes and was taken to hospital for medical attention. The labour reform being debated in the Senate proposes lower severance payments for companies in cases of layoffs. It would also allow a maximum 12-hour workday through a system of overtime compensation and restrict the right to protest in sectors considered ‘essential’."