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LABOUR: U.S. Unions Back Ousted Mexican Leader

Ana Laura del Toro

NEW YORK, Mar 23 2006 (IPS) - Support is growing in the United States for a “formidable advocate” of workers’ rights in Mexico who was forced out of his job as union leader by the Mexican government just over a month ago.

On Wednesday, the Mexican government repeated its refusal to accept the ratification of Napolean Gomez Urrutia, despite his re-election by a national assembly of the National Union of Mine and Metallurgical Workers last Sunday in Coahuila, Mexico.

“Don’t be confused, there’s no way back, the leader of the Miners’ Union is Elias Morales,” said Francisco Salazar of the Labour Ministry, adding that his agency had never even received an official notification of the assembly itself. He also talked about the charges of corruption that Gomez Urrutia is facing from some union members.

Gomez Urrutia was summarily removed as head of the National Union of Mine and Metallurgical Workers on Feb. 17 by the Mexican Labour Ministry which then named a “provisional” replacement, in a move that many Mexican workers said was an intolerable interference in union activity.

Support for Gomez has now crossed national borders with solidarity protests organised by the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and the nation’s largest labour federation, the AFL-CIO.

“We are calling on the government of Vicente Fox to restore the democratically elected leader of the National Union of Mine and Metallurgical Workers of the Mexican Republic, the union known as ‘Los Mineros’ by its 250,000 members,” USWA Secretary-Treasurer Jim English said at a rally last week in Philadelphia.

“When the government removed their leader, democracy was trampled. Napoleon Gomez is a formidable advocate for the rights of workers in Mexico. The employers fear Gomez and don’t want any challenges to their endless supply of cheap labour in Mexico. We must challenge the Mexican government’s role in suppressing workers’ upward mobility.”

“We cannot allow the Mexican government to remove a democratically elected leader from office,” added Linda Chavez-Thompson, the AFL’s vice president, before some 300 people at the Philadelphia rally. “Napoleon Gomez is our brother and we will give all the support and help we can until justice in Mexico is finally done.”

Chavez-Thompson and hundreds of Philadelphia workers representing 15 unions then marched from the Liberty Bell to the Mexican Consulate where they delivered a letter addressed to Fox from USWA President Leo Gerard. The letter called for the reinstatement of Napoleon Gomez and removal of the leader named by the Mexican government.

The USWA represents 1.2 million workers that are part of 1,800 local unions throughout the United States and Canada.

The USWA also threatened to call a boycott of Mexico as a tourist destination and pursue “all available recourse, including lodging formal complaints with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the United Nations and North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC)” in support of the union’s autonomy.

“During the next three weeks we’ll protest all across America and Canada, picketing at all of the Mexican consulates,” said Gerald Fernandez, assistant to the president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The schedule of protests includes Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah.

The government said it removed Gomez Urrutia after a dissident wing of the union, led by Elias Morales, charged “extreme” corruption by Gomez Urrutia – specifically the mishandling of a 55-million-dollar fund set up to compensate workers who lost their jobs to the privatisation of a mine in Sonora, which was sold to mining giant Grupo Mexico in 1989. According to the charges leveled at Gomez, only 10 million dollars of the compensation was delivered to workers. Those charges are reportedly under investigation.

Gomez Urrutia has been unavailable for comment since the first protest by miners in February. The National Workers Union (UNT), a federation of dissident unions that also supports Gomez Urrutia, has urged him to come forward to explain the whereabouts of the missing 55 million dollars from the miner’s fund.

The Labour Ministry, according to the procedure of “taking note” in Mexican labour law, named a provisional leader proposed by the members of the dissident Council of Justice and Supervision. The new leader, Elias Morales, reportedly is not a union member.. During his term as union chief, Gomez Urrutia won important battles against the mining companies, including a salary increase of 12 percent and better working conditions. He opposed the labour law reform package presented by the Fox administration. After the tragic mining disaster of Feb. 19 at Pasta de Conchos, Coahuila, he called the deaths of 65 miners “industrial homicide” and called for a complete investigation and punishment of those responsible.

Members of the miners’ union executive committee say they will submit documentation to prosecutors and the Chamber of Deputies proving there was no fraud by Gomez.

Union spokesman Juan Luis Zúñiga said the union will also file complaints against Secretary of Labour Francisco Javier Salazar, presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar, and appointed union leader Morales, accusing them of defaming Gómez Urrutia. The General Ministry of Justice in Mexico is closely watching this case.

An Oxford law school graduate, Gomez was elected in 2001 after the death of his father, Napoleon Gomez Sada, who was head of the union for about 40 years. His father was considered a “charro” because of his absolute loyalty to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the long-time ruling party of Mexico.

“This is a clear battle against labour, and democracy in labour,” said Juan Luis Zúñiga Velázquez, a top mining union spokesman. “They don’t want anyone to defend the workers’ or unions’ autonomy.”

The union has already had one work stoppage on Mar. 1, which temporarily paralysed the nation’s mining industry. Earlier this month, 20,000 miners and members of other unions demonstrated in Mexico City to support Gómez Urrutia.

“I think it’s potentially quite an explosive situation, in a good sense,” said Dan La Botz, director of Latin American studies at Miami University of Ohio and the author of several books on Mexican labour unions, in an interview with the Miami Herald. “There are a lot of things that need to be changed in Mexico and the miners are taking action which could potentially be beneficial for lots of workers.”