MEXICAN FEDERAL AND STATE AUTHORITIES MOVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 000126 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILCSR, WHA/MEX AND USDOL FOR ILAB E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB ECON PHUM PGOV PINR MX SUBJECT: MEXICAN FEDERAL AND STATE AUTHORITIES MOVE AGRESSIVELY AGAINST STRIKING MINERS REF: 07 MEXICO 1927 MEXICO 00000126 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. SUMMARY: On January 11, several hundred federal and state policemen in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora stormed the approximately 1300 striking workers at the Cananea copper mine. The strike at the Cananea mine began in July 2007. GOM federal labor authorities have previously used minor technicalities to declare the Cananea strike illegal but the striking miners union successfully obtained a court ordered injunction against the declaration. This time, although a new federal labor authority declaration against the unionized workers gave them 24 hours to end the strike and return to their jobs, rather than risk being restrained by another injunction, the January 11 police action began just a few hours after the labor authorities issued their ruling. The workers at the Cananea mine claim they are striking for better pay and over poor health and safety conditions. However, most informed observers strongly believe the strike is also part of an effort to support the head of the union who is in self-imposed exile in Canada awaiting the resolution of federal corruption charges. According to various media reports the strike at Cananea is costing the mine,s owners over USD 3 million per day. At this point the miners union has again obtained an injunction upholding the legality of the strike but in the meantime federal and state police now occupy the mine and several hundred workers have reportedly crossed the picket line. This appears to be the first time the government of President Calderon has used force to intervene in a labor dispute. END SUMMARY. THE ROOTS OF A LONG-RUNNING STRIKE -------------- ¶2. In July of 2007 the unionized workers at the Cananea copper mine in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora went on strike. The striking workers belong to the National Union of Miners and Metalworkers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM). Until September of 2007, the SNTMMSRM had been the only such union in Mexico and it is still the country,s largest miners and metalworkers union. The official reason for the strike was to demand better pay and to protest poor health and safety conditions. Both the owners of the Cananea mine and some responsible elements with the GOM,s federal labor authorities dismissed these claims as unfounded. However, in October 2007 a bi-national delegation of health and safety experts from Mexico and the U.S. visited the Cananea mine and did preliminary health screening for 68 of the 1300 strikers. The delegation documented unsafe working conditions in the open-pit mine and processing plants where workers were exposed to high levels of airborne silica, which can cause fatal diseases like silicosis and lung cancer. ¶3. The seriousness of the claims regarding unsafe working conditions notwithstanding, most informed observers and the GOM,s Secretariat of Labor believe the strike is also part of an effort to support the Secretary General of the SNTMMSRM, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia. The leader of the SNTMMSRM has been extremely critical of Grupo Mexico, the parent company which owns the Cananea mine, and has gone to great lengths to obtain favorable treatment for (himself and) the union during collective bargaining negotiations. Gomez is currently in self-imposed exile in Canada awaiting the resolution of federal corruption charges for allegedly embezzling USD 55 million in union pension funds. GOM efforts to have Canada extradite Gomez have thus far been unsuccessful due to a lack of compelling evidence and many (but not all) of the changes against the SNTMMSRM leader have been dismissed on appeal in Mexican federal courts. ¶4. Cananea is the largest copper mine in Mexico and it employs some 1300 workers. It has a production capacity of 140,000 metric tons a year of copper concentrate and about 50,000 metric tons of refined copper. The Cananea strike is reportedly costing the company an estimated USD 3 million a day in lost sales, and also led it to lower its overall copper target for 2007 from 670,000 metric tons to 620,000 metric tons at the most. The Cananea mine is owned by the Southern Copper Corp. a publicly traded mining company based in Phoenix, Arizona that is itself majority owned by Grupo MEXICO 00000126 002.2 OF 003 Mexico. Because of the size of this operation Cananea,s owners have repeatedly sought help from Mexican federal labor authorities and from the state government of Sonora to try and resolve its dispute with the union. FEDERAL AND STATE ACTION AGAINST STRIKING MINERS -------------- --- ¶5. Mexico,s constitution guarantees freedom of association and the right to strike. The statutes that codify these rights are contained in Mexico,s &Federal Labor Law.8 In order to exercise the right to strike, Federal Labor Law establishes various administrative requirements, the two most important in this case being: (1) that only officially recognized unions can call for a strike and (2) before a strike can be considered legal a union must receive approval of a strike notice from the appropriate labor authorities. ¶6. In the case of the Cananea strike the appropriate authorities were the Sonora offices of the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) which operates under the jurisdiction of Mexico,s Secretariat of Labor. There is no question that SNTMMSRM is an officially recognized union and that it obtained formal approval from the JFCA to launch a strike. After approval was received, and apparently at the request of Grupo Mexico, the JFCA reviewed the strike notice and subsequent labor actions and decided to declare the strike illegal because it allegedly began several hours earlier than the time authorized on the approved strike notice. ¶7. According to a statement by the Sonora Governor, Eduardo Bours, the state government was informed by the JFCA at some unspecified time on January 10. Governor Bours said that the JFCA had declared the strike illegal and that state authorities had been asked to support federal policemen in their efforts to ensure the safe entrance to the mine of any employee who wanted to return to work. It is not clear when the workers or the SNTMMSRM union were informed of the decision to declare the strike illegal. The formal JFCA decision to declare the strike illegal also contained standard language giving the workers 24 hours to end their labor action and return to their jobs or face dismissal. ¶8. On January 11, Mexican federal and Sonora state police gathered mid-morning launched an assault to evict striking workers from the Cananea mine. There are unconfirmed reports that federal and state police, supported by the Mexican army, used tear-gas and rubber bullets to dislodge SNTMMSRM members from the mine. Mexican press accounts reported roughly 20 miners were injured and around 30 others briefly detained during the eviction. A counterattack by miners armed with Molotov cocktails resulted in some damage to property and vehicles, government officials charged. The police action came just hours after the JFCA declared that the strike was illegal. State and federal authorities have denied that anyone was injured in the attack on the workers but a SNTMMSRM spokesman repeatedly affirmed that injuries did take place. THE SITUATION AT CANANEA -------------- ¶9. As soon as word of the police action became known lawyers striking workers filed a formal appeal in Mexican federal courts for an injunction against the for the JFCA ruling. While this was occurring, both the GOM,s Secretariat of Labor and the Sonora state government authorities defended the use of force at Cananea. By the morning of January 12, a formal injunction had been approved granting provisional approval for the strike to continue. The injunction gives the union approximately a week to respond to allegations that the strike was an illegal labor action. In the meantime, all striking workers have been expelled from the mine and Cananea is now in the hands of federal and state police authorities. MEXICO 00000126 003.2 OF 003 ¶10. Once federal and state police succeeded in removing striking workers from the mine, they quickly facilitated the return to the workplace of any Cananea employee who wanted to resume their jobs. As an extra incentive to those considering returning to their jobs Cananea, offered striking workers a USD 1500.00 bonus, as well as subsidies to pay for home gas and electricity. Either because of the incentives or because of harsh economic reality, up to a quarter of the total striking workers have returned to the mines. At present the SNTMMSRM union members have the law on their side but the police and Grupo Mexico now have possession of the Cananea mine. COMMENT -------------- ¶11. The Cananea incident is the latest episode in a nearly two-year-old battle involving Napoleon Gomez, the SNTMMSRM union, Grupo Mexico and the GOM. This ongoing conflict significantly escalated after a February 2006 explosion at a Grupo Mexico coal mine in the northeastern state of Coahuila killed 65 workers. Soon thereafter, the administration of then President Vicente Fox pressed legal charges originating from an earlier accusation of embezzlement against Napoleon Gomez. Parallel to the legal moves against Gomez, the former Secretary of Labor recognized a rival leader who SIPDIS unsuccessfully attempted to take complete control of the union. Meanwhile, as noted above, Gomez fled to Canada, and the two union factions battled for leadership of the organization. Presently a company-friendly union headed by former Grupo Mexico contractor Francisco Gamez is vying with Gomez,s union to represent SNTMMSRM workers and the administration of Mexico,s current President, Felipe Calderon has recently approved the formation of two other mining unions. ¶12. The police action against the striking Cananea mine workers appears to be the first time the Calderon government has used force to intervene in a labor dispute. Undoubtedly there are times when the use of force is clearly justified but the Cananea incident does not appear to be one of them; especially when the justification for the police action was that the union started its strike a few hours early. The Cananea incident could have multiple implications for US. Aside from the obvious human rights issues, there are American interests involved on both sides of this labor dispute. On one side there is a US company (Southern Copper Corp.) as a significant shareholder in the Cananea mine and on the other side the striking SNTMMSRM workers are heavily supported by the American United Steelworkers (USW) Union. No matter what the ultimate outcome of this incident, and at the moment the situation does not favor the striking union workers, one group or another in the US is going to be displeased. Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / GARZA