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 Business News | August 2006 
Mexican Mine Workers May Go on Strike
 Associated Press
| Diego Rivera's Miners in Guerrero
c. 1936 |
Mexico City - The leader of a hard-line faction of the Mexican mine workers' union warned this week that more strikes would be called unless the government recognizes an ousted union leader.
Carlos Pavon, who represents a wing of the union loyal to Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, said a five-month strike at Mexico's largest steel rebar plant was settled Monday on the condition that Gomez Urrutia be recognized as union leader. Prosecutors have accused of Gomez Urrutia of misusing funds.
Pavon said the strike at Sicartsa could resume, and spread to other mines and plants organized by the union, if the government does not comply with the demand.
The strike "was lifted on one condition, that if the recognition isn't granted in 15 days, we are going to have problems," Pavon told reporters Thursday after meeting with Interior Department officials. Asked what the union would do, he replied: "We are going to strike again."
The strike at the plant in Mexico's Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas had idled more than 2,300 workers since April.
Plant owner Grupo Villacero agreed to grant the workers a 6 percent wage increase and 2 percent more in benefits, retroactive to May 1, the union said. The company will also pay wages for the period of the strike and give out a 7,500-peso ($700) bonus.
Both the company and the government have not mentioned the demand to recognize Gomez Urrutia's faction. Labor Secretary Francisco Salazar told local media that the Gomez Urrutia's recognition had been denied on legal grounds earlier this week, adding "there is no legal basis for a strike."
The Labor Department since February has recognized dissident Elias Morales as the union's leader.
The department's recognition of Morales, despite union ratification of Gomez Urrutia, was behind strikes at Grupo Mexico's La Caridad and Cananea copper mines, as well as Sicartsa.
Gomez Urrutia, who is in Canada, is accused of misappropriating $55 million that Grupo Mexico paid to the union for distribution among workers of La Caridad and Cananea as part of the 1990 privatization of the mines.
The Sicartsa plant, about 210 miles southwest of Mexico City, produces steel rebar, which is used to reinforce concrete construction.
On April 20, two workers were killed and several dozen other people, including police officers, were injured when state and federal police attempted unsuccessfully to evict strikers from the plant. |
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