Justicialist Party, however, he resigned the following May in favor of Steelworkers' leader Naldo Brunelli. The CGT endorsed Menem's 1995 re-election campaign; but following a sharp recession, the CGT, CTA, and MTA reacted jointly in mid-1996 with two general strikes against the government's neoliberal policies, whose emphasis on free trade and sharp productivity gains they believed responsible for the highest unemployment rates since the great depression. Aside from these shows of force, the CGT, led by Food Processing Union leader Rodolfo Daer, remained conciliatory with the anti-labor Menem for the sake of the Justicialist Party. The party's defeats in the 1997 mid-term elections bode poorly for their chances in 1999 (elections they went on to lose). Revival and new divisions Cohesiveness within the CGT was again strained in 2000. President Fernando de la Rúa's push for labor law flexibilization ended in scandal and undid his rapprochement with Daer and the CGT leadership; Daer's conciliatory stance, in turn, resulted in a "Rebel" CGT faction led by Julio Piumato and made Moyano's break with the CGT official. The collapse of de la Rúa's government in late 2001 made way for the parliamentary selection of former Buenos Aires Province Governor Eduardo Duhalde, whose alliance to MTA leader Hugo Moyano helped lead to the gathering of much of what remained of the CGT under his leadership. The reunited CGT elected Moyano Secretary General in 2004. Benefiting from a close alliance with Kirchnerism (in power in Argentine Government since 2003), Moyano leveraged his capacity as head of the Council on Salaries (an officially sanctioned advisory board) to secure a stronger collective bargaining position and frequent increases in the minimum wage. From the 1990s onward, and in spite its strength as the only labor representative in many forums, the CGT has faced growing opposition from other trade unions, such as the CTA, or the left-leaning grassroots organisations of unemployed people known as Piqueteros (Picketing Men), groups first in evidence during the Menem years which later become tenuously allied with the Kirchner administrations. The CGT, as fractious historically as its political partner the Justicialist Party, continued to be beset by disunity, moreover. Long-standing differences with Restaurant Workers' leader Luis Barrionuevo led to a new schism within the CGT during 2008, when Barrionuevo led 40 unions into a "Blue-and-White" CGT. Moyano secured his reelection as CGT head, however, and retained the support of 134 unions, including most of