23 June, 2009World leaders will call on the Mexican government to stop the escalating violations of trade union rights, the subject of two official complaints filed with the ILO and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
MEXICO/GLOBAL: Parliament members, policy makers and union leaders from around the world are calling on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to accept their request to meet to discuss the recent murder and ongoing detention and harassment of members of the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM).
In July, an estimated 50 labour leaders and members of parliament from countries that are key trading partners with Mexico will participate in a high level fact-finding mission. Over the course of five days, the delegation will meet with Mexican government officials, Ambassadors stationed in Mexico, members of the miners' union and widows and families of the victims of violence.
The mission is in response to a marked increase in violence against members of the SNTMMSRM, many of whom have been on strike for more than 22 months at mines owned by Grupo Mexico, the country's largest and most powerful mining company. Grupo Mexico's influence in the Mexican government has resulted in a number of illegal arrests of miners' union members as well as the falsification of documents, corruption and a perversion of the legal system in an attempt to crush the union.
The SNTMMSRM is a long-established independent union representing workers in the mining and steel industry and has been an outspoken and powerful advocate for the rights of workers. It has been one of the few unions in Mexico to carry out a militant program of industrial action.
Attacks against the union, the subject of official complaints launched with the International Labour Organisation and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have in recent months escalated. The government has illegally frozen all union accounts, national and local, attacked strikers with brutal force and pursued criminal charges and lawsuits against SNTMMSRM members. On June 11, an SNTMMSRM member on strike in Sombrerete, Zacatecas was beaten to death when violence broke out at the Grupo Mexico mine. Three others were critically injured.
Parliamentarians and union leaders will be calling on the Government of Mexico to cease assisting the multinational mining company Grupo Mexico in its campaign to destroy the SNTMMSRM, release all union accounts illegally seized by the government, and prosecute in a court of law all those responsible for crimes committed against SNTMMSRM members.
The delegation is being jointly organized by the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the United Steelworkers (USW) and the SNTMMSRM. The decision to undertake this action was agreed upon at the IMF Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Buenos Aires last week.