URGENT: APPEAL FOR CANANEA MINEWORKERS

[theorganizer at labornet.org]

URGENT: APPEAL FOR CANANEA MINEWORKERS

***

Note: Please endorse this sign-on Open Letter to the Mexican
authorities in support of the mineworkers and their families
in Cananea, Mexico. Add your name and/or that of your union or
organization. You should send your endorsement directly to 
Gemma Lopez Limon at "Ricardo Flores Magon" Human Rights Committee, 
Mexicali (Mexico). Her e-mail address is <glopez at faro.ens.uabc.mx>. 
She will forward your statement to the Mexican authorities. Please 
include your organization and title, if possible, and mention if 
these are to be listed for identification purposes only. Also, 
please send a copy of your e-mail endorsement to <owc at igc.org>.

*****

IN THIS MESSAGE:

(1) Open Letter to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo

(2) Mineworkers End Bitter Three-Month Strike

(3) Background to the Strike

*****

(1) Open Letter to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo in Support of the 
Cananea Mineworkers (Mexico)

Respect the workers¹ collective-bargaining agreement!
Restore immediately all water distribution to the townspeople!

Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
President of Mexico, Palacio Nacional
06067 Mexico, D.F.
Fax: 011-525-516-5762

Dear President Zedillo:

We are writing to express our deepest concern for the safety and 
well-being of the mineworkers and their families in Cananea, 
Sonora. These workers ended their bitter three-month strike on 
February 15, after the Mexican Army threatened to use violence 
against them. They went out on strike last November 18 to demand 
a halt to the projected 1000 layoffs demanded by the Compañia 
Mexicana de Cananea ‹ which is owned by billionaire Jorge Larrea 
and his Grupo México.

The laid-off mineworkers were promised the full severance 
package stipulated by their collective bargaining agreement. No 
sooner had the strike ended, however, than the company reneged on 
its promise, offering the laid-off workers a pittance of the severance 
pay and benefit package they were entitled to.

The company, moreover, blacklisted 120 workers on the grounds 
they were strike "organizers" -- thereby denying them the right to 
return to their jobs. These workers were not in units slated to be 
closed under the company¹s downsizing plan. And those workers 
who returned to their jobs were paid less than $2 per week, after the 
company illegally discounted large sums from their paychecks for 
"damages and costs incurred during the strike." This represents an 
open violation of Mexico¹s labor legislation.

We are writing to urge you to insist that Mexican labor law and the 
workers¹ collective-bargaining agreement are fully respected and 
implemented in Cananea!

We also understand that on March 9 -- in retaliation against the 
townspeople of Cananea, who ardently supported the strikers -- the 
Compañia Mexicana de Cananea cut off all water distribution to the 
town. Historically, the mining company has been responsible for all 
water distribution to the population. As of this writing [March 16], 
the town has not had any running or drinking water for seven days. 
The townspeople fear an outbreak of hepatitis and cholera as toilets 
cannot be flushed and people are forced to use contaminated water. 
This situation is intolerable!

On March 11, the Women's Front of Cananea, together with thousands of
townspeople, occupied the two water plants in the town and opened the
valves to distribute water to the people. Within a few hours, the
Compañia Mexicana de Cananea cut off all electrical power to the
water plants, thereby halting off all water distribution to the
community. As of this writing, all water distribution -- including
to the mines and processing plants -- remains cut off.

We call on the company and the authorities to resolve this conflict 
based on the respect for the collective-bargaining agreement and the 
democratic and trade union rights of the mineworkers of Cananea. 
And we call on the Governor of Sonora and the Mexican Ministry of 
Interior (Gobernación) to urge the Compañia Mexicana de Cananea 
to restore immediately all water distribution to the townspeople of 
Cananea.

Thank you for your time and immediate attention to this extremely 
alarming situation. 

Sincerely yours,

cc.  Lic. Armando Lopez Nogales
Governor of the State of Sonora
Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico
Fax: 011-562-17-41-26

cc. Manuel Ernesto Romero, 				
General Secretary, District 65, 		 		
National Mineworkers Union (Cananea)	
Fax: (011) 52-65-663-26543


*****

(2) Mineworkers End Bitter Three-Month Strike

By GEMMA LOPEZ LIMON

MEXICALI, Mexico ‹ Close to three months after they went out 
on strike to preserve their jobs against a deadly downsizing 
onslaught, the 2000 mineworkers of Cananea were forced back to 
work without obtaining any of the demands for which they had 
fought. Cananea is a small copper mining town in the northern 
Mexican state of Sonora.

Over the weekend of Feb. 13-14, the strikers had occupied the 
mines and mining facilities, insisting they would not leave until the 
company, the Grupo Mexico, had met their demands. "The Cananea 
mine is ours," a striking mineworker told the workers¹ general 
assembly. "It belongs to our community and to the people of Mexico 
‹ not to the billionaires and their foreign friends. Our strike is 
about keeping our jobs, our livelihood ‹ and our dignity."

In response to the workers¹ occupation, the Army and Judicial 
Police were mobilized and given orders to remove the strikers from 
company property by any means necessary. Late in the afternoon of 
Sunday, Feb. 14, faced with the threat of large-scale violence at the 
hands of the Army and police, the strikers agreed to return to work.

For the next two weeks, the strikers slated to be laid off as a result 
of the closure of four production facilities were told that the 
company would not pay the estimated 1000 laid-off workers (out of 
a total workforce of 2070) the severance payments they were entitled 
to under their collective-bargaining agreement.

As of this writing [March 16], only 315 of the 1000 laid-off 
workers have accepted their severance packages. "What they¹re 
offering is an insult," said Javier Canizares Lopez, outreach 
coordinator for the strike. "We were promised full severance pay; 
it¹s in our contract. Again they are reneging on their promises."

Canizares explained that the 300 workers who have taken their 
severance pay are angry as hell, but simply were pushed to the wall 
and had to take whatever money they could get. "These workers are 
being paid less than one-fourth of the money that is owed to them," 
Canizares explained. "Nor are they getting the life-long healthcare 
coverage and social security they are entitled to. Though they took 
their money, they haven¹t given up the struggle. They are still in the 
fight along with the rest of us to make sure we get our rightfully 
earned money from the company."

The company, moreover, has openly violated Mexican Labor Law 
by refusing to allow 120 workers back to work on the grounds they 
were strike organizers. These are not workers in units scheduled to 
be closed.

"The company is out to break our union and our collective-
bargaining agreement," Canizares said. "Workers here are so angry, 
they may be pushed to go back out on strike. If they send in the 
Army again, at least we have a chance to fight back. If we do 
nothing, it¹s slow death."

Given the urgency of the situation, the Cananea mineworkers are 
calling on the national and international labor movement for support. 
They are urging trade unions, union activists and supporters of trade 
union rights the world over to send email messages and/or faxes to 
the Mexican authorities to demand that the company fully respect the 
union¹s collective-bargaining agreement. [See Open Letter above.]

***

(3) Background to the Strike

Cananea, Sonora, remains alive in the memories of the Mexican 
people. The historic strike of the Cananea mineworkers in 1906, 
which was brutally repressed by the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, 
heralded the outburst of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It was the 
tenacious struggle of the mineworkers and their families that resulted 
in the nationalization of the Cananea mines ‹ the largest copper 
mine in Mexico and third largest in the world.

In 1989, the Mexican Army invaded Cananea: five thousand 
soldiers occupied the town to prevent any resistance from the 
mineworkers to the impending closure of the mines, based on the 
fraudulent claim of bankruptcy. The mines are vital to the 
community; 90 percent of the people depend on the mines for their 
livelihood. It took the protracted fight of the mineworkers and the 
Women¹s Front of Cananea to force the authorities to reopen the 
mines.

In 1990, the Mexican government privatized the mines, selling 
them for US$450 million to Jorge Larrea, one of the richest men in 
Mexico. The real value of the mines was estimated at US$3 billion. 
>From that moment on, the problems began to mount for the 
workers. Within months, close to 40 percent of the workforce ‹ 
that is, 1300 workers ‹ was laid off. This left only 2070 
mineworkers in Cananea.

Larrea, a close friend of former President Carlos Salinas de 
Gortari, now in exile in Ireland, is the principal shareholder of the 
recently privatized Sonora railway system. Soon after he bought the 
company, Larrea and his Grupo Mexico laid off 700 workers in 
Empalme and a similar number in Benjamin Hill, both of which are 
virtual ghost towns today. Today Larrea is seeking to buy the entire 
port of Guaymas.

In recent months, the company escalated its assault upon the 
mineworkers and the community. It began by openly violating 
fundamental aspects of the collective-bargaining agreement ‹ all in 
the name of cost-cutting. Over the years, the Cananea workers had 
won the best bargaining agreement in the mining industry.
But that was not all. The company decided to close down the 
treatment plant, where the industrial waste from the processing plant 
is treated before flowing into the local river. The employer also 
announced the closure of the smelting and storage plants, warning 
that 700 additional workers would be laid off. These decisions 
represented a death sentence to the town of Cananea.

On November 18, 1998, the local mineworkers¹ union -- Section 
65 of the National Mineworkers Union of the Mexican Republic -- 
reached the conclusion that enough was enough and decided to go 
out on strike. They followed all the provisions of Mexican labor law 
to ensure this would be a legal strike. But this was not to be.

The state of Sonora authorities ruled almost immediately that the 
strike was illegal because some of the paperwork had been filed 
"improperly." The Cananea strike, moreover, was opposed from the 
get-go by the national leadership of the Mineworkers Union, which 
is tied to the ruling party in Mexico, the PRI. The national union 
leadership refused any support to the Cananea strikers on the 
grounds their strike was illegal, and urged the local leadership to call 
off the strike and accept the bosses¹ terms.

But the strikers¹ determination was not swayed. For months, they 
endured constant harassment and repression at the hands of the state 
authorities.

Strike support committees were formed in various cities across 
Northern Mexico and in Arizona. Statements of support began 
pouring in from around the world, organized largely by the 
Organizing Committee for the Open World Conference in Defense of 
Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights. One solidarity 
statement was sent by the leadership of the Romanian mineworkers¹ 
union in the Jiu Valley, whose march to Bucharest had forced the 
government to agree to halt the closure of two "unproductive" 
mines.

These solidarity statements were read at strikers¹ general 
assemblies, buoying the workers¹ determination to continue the 
struggle till victory.

The showdown

On Thursday, Feb. 11, the executive board of the striking union 
local ‹ Section 65 of the National Mineworkers Union of the 
Mexican Republic ‹ returned to Cananea after a trip to Mexico 
City, where they had met with leading government authorities as 
well as the national leadership of their union. 

In Mexico City the local union leaders had been told by 
functionaries of the Ministry of the Interior that if the strikers 
did not return to work by Feb. 16, their collective-bargaining 
agreement would be rescinded ‹ which meant that the owners of the 
copper mine, the Grupo Mexico, would be authorized to fire all the 
2000 strikers and bring in a new scab workforce. The Mexican Army, 
the authorities continued, would be given orders to escort the scabs 
to their new jobs.

That was not all the Section 65 leaders learned during their trip to 
the nation¹s capital. Napoleon Gomez Sada, the general secretary of 
the National Mineworkers Union, told the Cananea delegation that 
the national union leadership had already signed a return-to-work 
agreement with the federal and state authorities. They told the 
union¹s local leadership that the strikers had no option but to 
return to work by Feb. 16.

News of this agreement, signed behind the backs of the strikers 
and their elected officers, angered the Cananea mineworkers. On 
Saturday, Feb. 13, a general assembly of the strikers voted to 
occupy the mines and all company installations. And, for the first 
time, they voted to call for the renationalization of the mine.
By the next morning, the town of Cananea had been taken over by 
squadrons of the Judicial Police. News reached the strikers that the 
Army had encircled the town, waiting for orders to move in and 
dislodge the strikers from the occupied facilities.

Then, in the early afternoon, a delegation consisting of strike 
leader Manuel Ernesto Romero, the mayor of Cananea, two top 
bureaucrats from the National Mineworkers Union in Mexico City, 
and the heads of the Army and Judicial Police for the region, went 
pit by pit and installation by installation to order the workers to 
end their occupation and return to work by 8 a.m. the following day.
Faced with the threat of large-scale violence at the hands of the 
Army and police, the workers returned home. ‹ G.L.L.