29 August, 2011
At the triennial United Steelworkers Convention in Las Vegas, US, on 16 August, the union covering members in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean moved closer to formalising a unified North American trade union together with oppressed National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros.
Los Mineros President Napoleón Gómez Urrutia addressed the 3,000 delegates via teleconference from Canada, where he has been in exile for the last five years. These same charges blocked Gómez from travelling to the Las Vegas Convention. His wife, Oralia, gave an emotional speech instead. It had been planned that Los Mineros leader Juan Linares would sign the agreement, but he was blocked from leaving Mexico by authorities who are conducting a relentless campaign against Los Mineros.
“A strong, unified union is needed to fight for workers from the northern tip of Canada to the most southern tip of Mexico, particularly in the age of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” stated USW President Leo Gerard.
Among other things, the agreement establishes worker councils for employees at multinationals in the three countries, "to facilitate exchange of information, strategic cooperation, solidarity support, and organizing initiatives."
The two trade unions formed a commission, charged with increasing strategic cooperation and exploring a fusion together following the aggressive police attacks on workers and their families at Cananea and Pasta de Conchos on 6 June 2010, announcing the bi-lateral trade union commission at the global "Triple Crisis of Sustainability” conference in Toronto on 19 June 2010.
The commission was made up of five members from each of the union’s leaderships, and will now be expanded to include the USW general counsel and director of international affairs. Los Mineros will get two additional representatives.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, while Los Mineros represents about 180,000 in Mexico.