Mexican Coal Mine Blast Termed ‘Industrial Homicide’

The 19 February gas explosion that killed 65 miners at Grupo Mexico’s Industria Mineral Mexicana subsidiary proves again the immediate necessity to improve safety and training in underground mining, particularly during times of high pricing and high demand for coal.

Twenty-five of those killed at the Pasta de Conchos No. 8 mine near San Juande Sabinas, northern Coahuila State, were members of Section 13 of Mexico’s Miners & Metalworkers Union (SNTMMSRM), an affiliate of the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF).

Many others were short-term contract workers who were given no training, insufficient oxygen supply devices, and were sent deep into shafts within a day of being hired. Mexican government and company statements on safety precautions and equipment on this mine disaster contradict with what miners actually had available to them.

The United Steelworkers of the US, which signed a strategic alliance with SNTMMSRM in April 2005, pledged financial and technical support to the union in the immediate aftermath of the blast. The IMF underscored the Mexican union’s charge that this was “industrial homicide” and must be investigated and denounced as such.

“Grupo Mexico shareholders and directors and whoever is responsible for this crime, caused by greed, repression and insensitivity should be charged and punished accordingly,” said SNTMMSRM and the IMF.