17 June, 2024The National Miners’ Union of Mexico (Los Mineros) are on strike at the ArcelorMittal plant in Lázaro Cárdenas Michoacán, demanding fair and dignified working conditions.
Workers in section 271 of Los Mineros, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, are on strike to demand a fair profit-sharing agreement and special bonus from ArcelorMittal. In a statement, the union says that although the steelmaker’s production and price levels remained the same between 2021 and 2023, it reported a fall in profits.
This tax-related decline in profits means that the share of the profits that workers were entitled to by law was also lower. To show its disagreement the union decided to conduct a blockade of the steel plant’s four production processes in an attempt to get the company to reconsider and negotiate an agreement more in line with its actual financial situation.
According to the workers’ representative Eduardo Lopez, the company had been notified of the strike, the union’s red and black flags were installed in strict compliance with legal deadlines, and the strike was launched in keeping with procedural requirements and Mexican labour laws.
However, ArcelorMittal has tried to discredit the union by saying that the blockades and the strike are unlawful. It says that the blockades, including the blast furnace stoppage, has resulted in major production losses. The union says that the losses are the result of ArcelorMittal management's lack of flexibility and its refusal to meet the workers' legitimate demands.
“We call on ArcelorMittal to respect workers’ rights and to immediately begin negotiations in good faith with the union to reach a fair agreement. Multinational companies must comply with labour laws and respect workers’ rights wherever they operate.
“IndustriALL will continue to follow this situation closely and support all necessary actions to ensure that workers’ rights are respected and justice is achieved. We stand in solidarity with the workers and their families in their struggle for justice and fairness,”
says IndustriALL general secretary, Atle Høie.