6 November, 2007International trade union delegation calls for European Union support of the Mexican Miners' Union, which has been the target of government repression and attacks by Grupo Mexico.
BRUSSELS: An International Metalworkers' Federation delegation is in Brussels and London this week, explaining and presenting evidence to the European Commission on how an independent Mexican trade union has been the target of government repression and attacks by the transnational Grupo Mexico.
Mexican government repression has included arbitrarily withdrawing legal recognition from Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the elected general secretary of the Mexican Miners' Union (SNTMMSRM) and other elected leaders based on forged evidence, and filing baseless criminal charges again Gómez and the union, disproved by an audit of the union's finances conducted by an international auditing company.
Other actions included: deploying military and security forces against the union, resulting in the deaths of three union members; granting overnight recognition to a pro-company union and holding "elections" in which workers were forced to vote publically in front of company officials; refusing to punish the Grupo Mexico officials responsible for the deaths of 65 miners in the explosion at the Pasta de Conchos mine in February 2006.
In addition, there are serious allegations that Grupo Mexico may be behind the recent murder of Reinaldo Hernández González, and the detention and torture of 20 SNTMMSRM members in Nacozari, Sonora State, Mexico.
An IMF representative and trade unionists representing the Mexican Miners' Union (SNTMMSRM), the United Steelworkers (USW) and Unite met with a range of European officials including Erika Mann, chair of the European Parliament-Mexico Parliamentary Delegation, to ask the EU to try and use the forthcoming EU-Mexico joint parliamentary delegation in Brussels to end these attacks.
Juan Luis Zuniga, one of the IMF delegation and member of SNTMMSRM National Committee, explained, "We have come to Europe to ask for your help in ending these repeated attacks, we would like assurances from the Mexican government that the persecution of trade union leaders will stop and that Mexican workers can enjoy basic human rights."
IMF Director of Union Building and Projects Fernando Lopes, who is with the delegation, added, "In the past few years the EU-Mexico have established a close and long lasting relationship, we would like to see that relationship used not just for economic co-operation but as a way of furthering social justice and human rights."