AWU backs global campaign for striking Mexican mine workers threatened by para-military

21 February 2010

The Australian Workers' Union has joined a global campaign to support striking miners in Mexico demanding the right to have their voices heard loudly and clearly at work.

Unions are concerned that armed Mexican troopers are about to attack 1200 striking workers at the Cananea copper mine who were fired by the mining giant Grupo Mexico after a court ruling effectively took away their union rights.

Letter to Ambassador protests 4 year campaign of repression and abuse

Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government have waged a four-year campaign of repression and abuse of power against Los Mineros - Mexico's strongest independent union - even forcing, Napoleon Gomez, the leader of the union, to live in exile in Canada where the Steelworkers' union has provided him sanctuary.

As part of the international campaign the AWU has now written this week to the Mexican Ambassador to Australia, Martha Ortiz de Rosa, and to the Australian Foreign Minister, the Hon. Stephen Smith, demanding that the human rights of these mine workers be respected.

" The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) has been watching closely the developments at the Cananea mine, owned by Grupo Mexico," the AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes, said in a letter to the Mexican Ambassador.

Preparing to take Cananea mine by force

" We are concerned that effectively the 1200 plus mine union members have now been denied the basic human right to withdraw their labour.

" The AWU is most concerned about the reports that the Mexican government is planning to use para-military police against the Cananea workers, who are simply demanding the right to be part of a democratic and free trade union.

" We have been informed by our sister unions in the United States and Mexico that your government is preparing to take Cananea by force, to eliminate the most powerful independent union in Mexico.

AWU created ALP after violent police repression of shearers strike

" Our union initiated the creation of the Australian Labor Party after a violent police repression of a famous shearers strike at the end of the 19th century. That action was taken because we wanted to ensure working people had an effective democratic voice to overturn repressive laws.

" We are very sensitive to any talk of police repression against working people and the denial of their democratic human rights.

" That's why we join with the many democratic trade unions across the globe who are watching the Cananea dispute with increasing concern for the lives of these workers and their families.

International campaign begins on anniversary of death of 65 miners

" We urge your government to remove the troops from Cananea, and allow safe and unhindered passage for the exiled democratic leadership of the mine union to come back from Canada to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict."

The strikers have been joined this week by an international delegation to remember the anniversary of the death of 65 miners killed four years ag in an explosion at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila, Mexico.

The 65 miners were trapped underground on February 19, 2006 when a methane explosion occurred in the number eight shaft of the mine owned by Grupo México in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

Steelworkers Union files lawsuit against Grupo Mexico in US federal court

Many of the miners that died were members of the Mexican Miners' and Metalworkers' Union (SNTMMSRM). Immediately after the blast the Mexican government deployed army troops to guard the mine.

Only two bodies were recovered at the time of the incident.

The AWU's sister union in the United States, the United Steelworkers, has this week filed a lawsuit on behalf of the families of the deceased coal miners in a U.S. federal court in Arizona seeking damages from Grupo México and related companies.

Company, Gvt knew - but ignored - unsafe working conditions

The lawsuit alleges Grupo México and the other corporate defendants failed and refused to take the necessary steps to prevent the disaster even though they were informed of unsafe conditions by the Mexican government and the miners themselves.

This tragic event precipitated and coincided with a series of actions that included the illegal removal of the Mexican miners' union's leader , who lives in exile in Canada; continuing violence and intimidation of union members and leaders, including the killing of striking workers.