FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO A UNION, AND TO STAY IN MEXICO
By David Bacon
Working In These Times, 5/16/12
http://www.inthesetimes.org/working/entry/13220/fighting_for_the_right_to_a_union_and_to_stay_in_mexico/
Jacinto Martinez is the labor secretary of Section 65 of the Mineros,
Mexico's union for miners and one of the oldest unions in the
country. His union has been on strike for five years at the huge
Cananea mine, one of the longest strikes in the history of North
America. Critical support for this strike has come from the U.S.
miners' union, the United Steel Workers, and both unions have
announced their desire to merge to form a single organization.
Martinez describes the history of the strike and the horrifying
conditions in Cananea today in an interview with David Bacon.
Members of the miners' union, the Mineros, march to Mexico City's
main square, the Zocalo, to protest the repression of unions by
President Felipe Calderon.
Our town is where the Mexican Revolution began in 1906, at a
time when miners there were virtually enslaved. The mine was
eventually taken over by the government, which ran it for many years.
Nevertheless, over the last hundred years there were many strikes in
this mine over wages and working conditions
Finally, in 1989, the government stopped all operations at
the mine, and President Carlos Salinas de Gortari declared that the
mine was bankrupt. In August of that year the government sent in
Federal troops. The miners were expelled from the mine, and the mine
was closed for three months. Then Salinas sold it to private owners,
Grupo Mexico, the company run by the Larrea family. Really, it was
basically given away. The government had just invested 400 million
pesos in the ore concentrator alone. Grupo Mexico bought the whole
mine for 650 million.
After the Larrea family took over, we've had nothing but
battle after battle with them. They are one of the largest mining
companies in the world, and one of the richest families in Mexico.
The company was forced to make certain commitments in order to take
over the mine, but they've never fulfilled any of them. One was to
share with the workers five percent of the price they'd paid for the
mine. Because of their failure, in 2004 we took action to force the
company to pay what had become by that time a debt of 55 million
pesos.
After that things became even more difficult. Before, the
government was at least a little concerned for our welfare. Now all
dialogue with the government has been cut off, and they give total
support to Grupo Mexico.
We went on strike again on June 30, 2007, because of the
deteriorating conditions in the mine. Once the strike started, the
Federal government, through the labor board, declared it illegal
several times. Each time we've gone to court, and the courts have
overruled the board and restored the strike's legal status.
According to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, we have a
right to return to our jobs.
Once again, on April 14, 2010, the strike was declared legal
by the courts. Nevertheless, at 10PM the same day the company
withdrew recognition from our union and broke off its employer/union
relationship with us. That was completely illegal. But the
government then brought in police and troops, and allowed the company
to reopen the mine.
At the time we went on strike, there were about 1200 members
of our union. Now there are still 850 people on strike, five years
later. The company has tried to buy people off by offering them
severance pay if they'll give up any claim to their jobs. In my
case, after 23 years working in the mine, they've offered me
1,007,000 pesos [about $85,000]. They've said that in addition,
they'd give me 830,000 pesos to try to buy me out. But I won't take
their offer, nor will any of the strikers.
We don't have Social Security medical insurance, so the
medical care we get comes from the company as part of our employment.
If we take their offer, we will lose all our medical care. The 850
strikers have been fighting for this too. To make matters worse, on
Mother's Day in 2008, the company gave us an additional gift by
closing the hospital where we received our care. Counting children
and retirees, an additional 1200 people lost their medical care
because of that.
The government stepped in to provide some services, but even
though we can see a doctor again, we have no money to buy medicine.
This has hurt our retirees especially, because now they have to pay
for medicine, where in the past the company had to provide it. Some
of us have severe problems because of working in the mine, like
silicosis and high blood pressure, so doing without medical care is
not an option.
To protest government support for the company, about 50
miners have gone to Hermosillo, the state capitol, where they are
occupying a site near the government building. When they come back
to Cananea, other workers go to take their place. We are not the
only local union of miners on strike. Section 17 has been on strike
in Taxco and Section 201 in Zacatecas. We are all facing Grupo
Mexico.
We are also protesting over what happened at Pasta de Conchos
in 2006. The union made many requests to the Labor Secretary, asking
that the government conduct inspections of that mine. But there were
none, and finally there was a terrible explosion in which 65 miners
were trapped inside and died. The only thing they did was close the
mine. The company even refused to go in and bring back the bodies,
and the government backed them up. The company and government
claimed it was an accident. But the president of our union, Napoleon
Gomez Urrutia, held a press conference and called it industrial
homicide. After that, the government tried to arrest him and he had
to flee to Canada.
Since we've been fighting Grupo Mexico, we've had the
financial support of the United Steel Workers in the U.S., who also
gave sanctuary to our president. That's how we've been able to
survive. Over 80,000 workers are contributing to our ability to go
on fighting. And we are also receiving contributions from our own
members in Mexico who are still working. So our situation in Cananea
isn't good, but we've been able to continue for five years. Our
members still support the strike totally.
The company has been able to restart production, using about
3,000 workers who are employed by contractors. There are about 2,000
Federal soldiers guarding them. They've turned Cananea into an armed
camp. They have towers with machine guns watching over people, and
you can't even pass through certain streets in the center of town.
This is why we're supporting Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in his
campaign for President in our national elections in July. He's
promised that if he's elected, he'll defend us.
Grupo Mexico is really destroying Cananea. The mine pumps
water from about 70 wells. Cananea, with a population of 30,000,
only has two or three. The mine is buying up land throughout this
area, and now has more land than the town itself. They use it to
dump the mine tailings, which have already buried part of the old
town.
Meanwhile, of the 300 members of our union who betrayed us
and went back to work, only about 50 are left. The only way they've
been able to make the mine run is by bringing in 3,000 people from
outside, from Oaxaca, Puebla and other states in the south. The
economic situation in these states is worse than here in the north.
There's no work, no jobs there.
Grupo Mexico has built special housing for many of the
strikebreakers on the mine property, called colectivos. They're like
barracks. For others, the company rents big houses in town, where a
lot of them are housed together. The company then picks them up in
busses in the morning and brings them back at night. That way it
controls them. And the whole economy of Cananea has collapsed
because these workers aren't living in the area like normal
residents. Many of them actually come here because we're close to
the U.S. border, and they're thinking about jumping the fence. The
reality is that the economy here is pretty dead.
Grupo Mexico mistreats these workers. It's gone back to the
same conditions people rose up against in 1906, when miners went on
strike for the 8-hour day. The strikebreakers are working 12 hours a
day. They all have to belong to a protection union, part of the CTM
[the Confederation of Mexican Workers, affiliated to Mexico's former
ruling party, the PRI]. Then, after working four or five months,
the company fires them. They only get 1,300 pesos a week [about
$100], so when people want to go home, they don't have enough money
to get back. Some of the fired workers wander through the streets,
begging for help from other workers so they can get home.
With people brought in from outside to work the mine, the
only solution for the people of Cananea itself is to leave, to
migrate. There's no other work here. Some go to other states, or to
other cities in northern Mexico. They leave by themselves to look
for work. Then right after they get paid on Friday, they send the
money home to their families. Most go to the U.S. That's logical,
because the border is only a half hour away, and Tucson's only three
hours from here. And that's where the work is. Sometimes people
just go to work for two or three weeks, and then come back, trying to
find a way to keep on living here. They try to use the work in the
U.S. to build up their reserves. This also happened after the
three-month strike in 1998.
The people who are on strike are all people who live here,
and most of us have been living here for generations. The head of
our strike committee, Jesus Verdugo, is the third generation in his
family to work in the mine. Now his children are old enough to work.
But if we don't win the strike, they'll never work here. We're
losing our traditions; we're losing the whole history of Cananea.
And this is because of what Grupo Mexico and the Federal government
are doing to us.
You could say we're fighting for our right and ability to
keep on living in Cananea.
Jacinto Martinez
For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org
See also Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and
Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008)
Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002
See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US
Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575
See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border
(University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html
Two lectures on the political economy of migration by David Bacon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgDWf9eefE&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd4OLdaoxvg&feature=related
--
__________________________________
David Bacon, Photographs and Stories
http://dbacon.igc.org
__________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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