Labor & Employment Law

Workers Protest Mexican President?s Anti-Worker Policies

By James Parks

Some 160 members of the United Steelworkers (USW), union staff and supporters from around Washington, D.C., today protested Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to the nation’s capital and condemned his government’s repression of workers’ rights in Mexico.

The USW and the AFL-CIO have both denounced the Mexican government’s four-year long campaign to destroy the independent mineworkers’ union, Los Mineros.  Members of Los Mineros have been on strike since July 2007 at the Cananea mine in Northern Mexico over health and safety and other contract violations.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told the crowd:

I am here to say that we in the labor movement fight equally for workers in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, in Mexico, and all across the globe. We will not let borders divide us and pit us against each other, and we’re serious when we say that an injury to one worker is an injury against all workers.

The Mexican government refused to recognize the results of the miners’ union election, brought charges against the union’s president Napoleon Gómez Urrutia and forcefully removed him from office. Union assets have been seized, and striking workers at the Cananea mine owned by mining giant Grupo Mexico have been subjected to what Trumka calls a “protracted campaign of repression” that has left two dead and many others injured at the hands of the Mexican armed forces. Gómez spoke by cell phone from exile in Vancouver to the demonstrators through a loud speaker hookup. He told the crowd:

We cannot let the government defeat the rights of the Los Mineros to a labor contract.

USW President Leo Gerard said in a statement:

We call on the Mexican government to withdraw its threat to use military force to dislodge the strikers and to negotiate with the Los Mineros to peacefully resolve this conflict .

On Feb. 11, a Mexican federal court gave Grupo Mexico permission to fire the striking workers and terminate the labor agreement. The government has threatened to use armed force to gain control of Cananea.

In a May 17 letter, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka urged the congressional leadership to raise the issue of workers’ rights with Calderon during his visit.  

 It is absolutely critical to the economic and social advancement of the (North American) region that Mexican workers have the opportunity to work in good jobs with higher wages so that they can provide for their families and contribute to real and sustainable development in Mexico. There can be no effective solution to the issues of border security and immigration as long as Mexico fails to provide economic opportunity to a large segment of its population.

Last October, Calderon fired 44,000 members of the independent Mexican Electrical Workers Union after refusing to negotiate with the union. Click here to read Trumka’s letter condemning Mexico’s anti-worker actions.

In an article in The Hill newspaper yesterday, Trumka challenged U.S. lawmakers and government leaders to bring up the workers’ rights issue with Calderon.

…we are still in the early phase of what will be a decades-long globalization of the world’s economy, and we’re still building the legal and moral infrastructure that will govern it for generations to come. The decisions we make today matter deeply. Calderon should end the exile of Los Mineros’ leaders, prosecute those who attacked and killed miners and insist that Grupo Mexico honor international workplace safety and labor norms. The question remains, however: Will our government ask him to do so?

Read The Hill column here.

Durazo also put our political leaders on notice that workers are watching to see how they deal with global workers’ rights issues.

We are not giving away any free passes. Just because a politician is defending immigrant workers in this country does not mean we will excuse him for fighting against workers rights in Mexico.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).