22 April, 2014IndustriALL Global Union denounces the brutal aggression against eleven workers who were attacked by CTM thugs on 21 April. Join the international calls on Teksid Italian management to stop union busting in Mexico.
Workers at Teksid Hierro in Monclova, Ciudad Frontera, Coahuila, Mexico, part of the Fiat Chrysler Group, are fighting back against abusive reprisals for organizing. Three workers, Marisol Ruiz Moreno, Orlando Mendoza Guardiola and Oscar Arturo Rodríguez Ponce, were sacked on 18 April and 11 more were savagely and cowardly assaulted by 80-100 hired thugs, while coming out of a meeting with management and labour authorities on 21 April. These attacks are in direct response to workers organizing to join the Los Mineros union, rejecting the CTM, and conducting a brief work stoppage on 16 April to protest disgracefully low wages and benefits.
Local Teksid management has arrogantly employed a number of union busting tactics to block the 600 Los Mineros supporters from establishing a democratic union at the workplace. The yellow CTM “union” was rejected after failing to defend workers’ interests.
Police or other authorities have not investigated the 21 April attack. Between 80 and 100 assailants surrounded the Teksid workers, insulted and attacked them with kicks, punches and sticks and iron pipes, constantly threatening them to abandon their protest movement for decent pay and their demand to affiliate with Los Mineros. Among the attackers were people from the local CTM branch.
Join the international trade union action to protest these violations of workers’ rights in Teksid, Mexico, and ensure no further reprisal sackings occur.
Writing to the Teksid president and CEO today, IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina stated:
The right of workers to choose their collective bargaining representative in a democratic manner, without employer or government interference, is a fundamental right guaranteed by ILO Conventions 98 and 87. IndustriALL demands that Teksid immediately reinstate the three fired workers. We further demand that Teksid assume a position of strict neutrality in this conflict and that it communicates publicly to the workers in Ciudad Frontera that they can choose their union without fear of reprisals by management.
The global FIAT-Chrysler trade union network, meeting in Turin, today issued a message of full support to the Teksid workers in Moncloa, Mexico, battling to organize a democratic union sectional to affiliate with Los Mineros.