New Zealand unions protest Mexican government’s use of force against striking workers

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Engi­neer­ing, Print­ing and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Union (EPMU), the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and the New Zealand Coun­cil of Trade Unions (CTU) deliv­ered a let­ter to the act­ing Mex­i­can Ambas­sador on Wednes­day 30 June 2010 express­ing deep con­cern at the Mex­i­can gov­ern­men­t’s use of force against strik­ing work­ers in the Nation­al Min­ers’ and Met­al­work­ers Union of Mex­i­co (Los Mineros).

The let­ter con­demns the assault by heav­i­ly armed riot police on strik­ing mem­bers of Los Mineros at the Cananea cop­per mine in Mex­i­co ear­li­er this month.

On 6 June hun­dreds of Mex­i­can riot police sur­round­ed the mine and used tear gas to dis­lodge work­ers who were occu­py­ing the entrances and to assault the union office. More than 1000 mem­bers of Los Mineros were on strike over a long-run­ning dis­pute with the com­pa­ny, Grupo Mex­i­co, over health and safe­ty and oth­er con­tract vio­la­tions.

Los Mineros report­ed that three work­ers received gun­shot or pro­jec­tile wounds, and oth­ers had been beat­en or were suf­fer­ing from the effects of the tear gas.

The let­ter urges the Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment to allow the elect­ed leader of the union, Napoleón Gómez, to return to Mex­i­co from exile in Cana­da and resume his posi­tion.

The act­ing Mex­i­can Ambas­sador Luis Enrique Fran­co gave an assur­ance he would con­vey to his gov­ern­ment the deep con­cerns of the New Zealand trade union move­ment over the Mex­i­can gov­ern­men­t’s treat­ment of the work­ers involved.

“We urge the Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment to allow the safe return of Napoleón Gómez, the elect­ed leader of the Nation­al Min­ers’ and Met­al­work­ers Union of Mex­i­co, so he can resume his duties with­out fear of reprisal,” says the EPMU’s senior nation­al indus­tri­al offi­cer Paul Tolich.

“The Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment needs to hon­our its com­mit­ments as a mem­ber of the Unit­ed Nations’ Inter­na­tion­al Labour Orga­ni­za­tion (ILO) and guar­an­tee free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion for all Mex­i­can work­ers,” says MUNZ gen­er­al sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood.

The ILO has backed Los Mineros in the dis­pute say­ing that the Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment has act­ed in a way that is incom­pat­i­ble with ILO Con­ven­tion No. 87 on Free­dom of Asso­ci­a­tion.