Fighting for a union and to stay in Mexico

Abstract

FOCUS □ WORKERS'RIGHTSINFORMALANDINFORMAL MINING Fighting for a union and to stay in Mexico Interviewwith JacintoMartinez Ourtown is where the Mexican Revolutionbegan in1906, at a time when miners therewere virtually enslaved DAVID BACON isajournalist and photographer based in San Francisco. http://dbacon.igc.org Our began there town were in is 1906, where virtually at the a enslaved. Mexican timewhen Revolution The miners mine began in 1906, at a timewhen miners therewere virtually enslaved.The mine was eventually takenover by the government, whichranitformanyyears.Nevertheless, over thelasthundred yearsthere weremanystrikes in thismineoverwagesandworking conditions Finally, in 1989,the government stoppedall operationsat the mine, and PresidentCarlos Salinasde Gortari declaredthatthe minewas bankrupt. In August ofthatyearthegovernment sentinFederaltroops. Theminers wereexpelled from themine, andtheminewas closedfor three months. Then Salinassold itto private owners, GrupoMexico,thecompanyrunby theLarrea family. Really,itwas basicallygivenaway.The government had justinvested 400 million pesos in the ore concentrator alone. Grupo Mexico bought thewholeminefor650 million. After theLarreafamily took over,we've had nothing butbattle after battle with them. Theyare one of the largestminingcompanies in the world,and one oftherichest families inMexico. The companywas forcedto makecertain commitments in orderto take over the mine,but they've neverfulfilled anyofthem.One was to sharewiththeworkers fivepercent oftheprice they'd paidforthemine.Becauseoftheir failure, in 2004we tookactionto forcethecompanyto paywhathad becomebythattimea debtof55 million pesos. After thatthings became even moredifficult. Before, thegovernment was at leasta little concernedfor ourwelfare. Nowalldialoguewiththe government has been cutoff, and theygivetotal support toGrupoMexico. We went on strikeagain on June30, 2007, because of the deteriorating conditionsin the mine.Once thestrike started, the Federalgovernment , through thelaborboard,declareditillegal severaltimes. Eachtimewe'vegonetocourt, and the courtshave overruledthe board and restored thestrike's legalstatus. According tothe Inter American Commission on HumanRights, we havea right to return to ourjobs. Once again,on April14,2010,thestrike was declared legal by the courts.Nevertheless, at 10PM the same day the companywithdrew recognition fromour union and broke offits employer/union relationship withus. Thatwas completelyillegal. But the government then brought in police and troops,and allowed the company toreopenthemine. At the timewe went on strike, therewere about1200members ofourunion.Nowthere are still850 people on strike, fiveyearslater.The company has tried to buypeople off byoffering them severance payifthey'll giveup anyclaimto their jobs. In mycase, after 23 yearsworking in the mine,they'veoffered me 1,007,000pesos [about $85,000].They'vesaid thatin addition, they'dgiveme 830,000pesos to tryto buyme out.ButI won'ttaketheir offer, norwillanyof thestrikers. We don'thave Social Security medicalinsurance ,so themedicalcarewe getcomesfrom the company as partofouremployment. Ifwe take their offer, we willlose all ourmedicalcare.The 850 strikers have been fighting forthistoo. To makematters worse,onMother's Dayin2008,the company gaveus an additional gift byclosing the hospitalwherewe receivedour care. Counting children and retirees, an additional 1200people losttheir medicalcarebecauseofthat. The government steppedin to providesome services, buteven thoughwe can see a doctor again,we haveno moneytobuymedicine. This has hurtour retirees especially,because now they havetopayformedicine, whereinthepast thecompany had toprovideit.Someofus have severeproblems becauseofworking inthemine, likesilicosisand highblood pressure, so doing without medicalcareis notan option. To protest government support forthecompany ,about50miners havegonetoHermosillo, the statecapitol,wheretheyare occupyinga site nearthegovernment building. Whentheycome backto Cananea,other workers go to taketheir place.We arenottheonlylocalunionofminers on strike. Section17hasbeenon strike inTaxco and Section201 in Zacatecas.We are all facing GrupoMexico. We arealso protesting overwhathappenedat Pastade Conchosin2006.Theunionmademany requeststo theLaborSecretary, askingthatthe government conductinspections of thatmine. Butthere werenone,andfinally there was a terribleexplosioninwhich65 miners weretrapped insideand died. The onlythingtheydid was closethemine.Thecompany evenrefused togo in and bringback thebodies,and thegovernmentbacked themup. The companyand government claimeditwas an accident. Butthepresidentof our union,Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, held a pressconference and called itindustrial homicide.After that,the government triedto arrest himand he had tofleetoCanada. Since we've been fighting Grupo Mexico, we've had the financial supportof the United SteelWorkers intheUS,whoalsogavesanctuary to ourpresident. That'show we've been able to survive. Over80,000workers arecontributing to our ability to go on fighting. And we are also receiving contributions from our own members inMexicowho arestill working. So oursituation in Cananea isn'tgood, butwe've been able to continue for five years. Ourmembers still support thestrike totally. INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 12Volume 19Issue 3201 2 FOCUS □ WORKERS'RIGHTSINFORMALANDINFORMAL MINING Thecompany has been able to restart production , using about 3000 workers who are employed by contractors. Thereare about2000 Federalsoldiersguarding them...