 |
|
|
 Business News | August 2007 
Grupo Mexico Tries to Fire Striking Cananea Workers
 Noel Randewich - Reuters
go to original
 |  | This will be determined by the (judicial) authority ... in the next few hours or days.
- Salvador Rocha |  | | Mexico City - Copper producer Grupo Mexico wants to fire more than 2,000 miners at its Cananea pit and other mines, a company lawyer said on Friday, but legal wrangling is keeping them from letting the workers go.
About 3,000 miners at Grupo Mexico's top copper mine Cananea and two smaller pits defied a government order to go back to work this week and promised to keep the mines closed until pay and conditions improve.
Grupo Mexico is trying to fire the workers after Mexico's labor ministry declared the strike illegal but has been held up by a temporary injunction won by the union.
"This will be determined by the (judicial) authority ... in the next few hours or days," Grupo Mexico lawyer Salvador Rocha told Reuters.
Union official Carlos Pavon said the walkout would continue at Cananea, which produced 164,000 tonnes of copper last year, as well as Grupo Mexico's San Martin copper mine and Taxco lead and silver mine.
Grupo Mexico's shares fell 4.68 percent to 65.19 pesos in a broad market sell-off.
Workers put down their tools on July 30, nominally to protest safety conditions but also in a bid to win a long running feud between union boss Napoleon Gomez and Grupo Mexico.
The union, which this week said it was adding a 15 percent pay rise to their original demands, has said it would resist any attempt by the company or police to break up the strike and fire workers.
Grupo Mexico, which also faces strike threats at mines in Peru run by its Southern Copper unit, has said it had not received any formal notice of the salary hike demands.
Despite a series of strikes over the past two years, Grupo Mexico aims to increase Cananea's output to 438,000 tonnes over the next five years by building new processing plants.
(Additional reporting by Veronica Gomez) |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us