Steelworkers stand up to Government of Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA

********************* Steelworkers demand that Vicente Fox's government restore democratically elected Mexican Mineworker Union leader Napoleon Gomez to office PHILADELPHIA, March 17 - The United Steelworkers (USW) union is leading a march of union members and supporters today from the Liberty Bell to the Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia in a show of outrage over what the USW sees as the illegal removal of the Mexican Mineworker Union leader Napoleon Gomez by the Mexican government following Gomez's call for an investigation of the deaths of 65 mineworkers in a tragic accident. "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," USW Secretary-Treasurer Jim English told the crowd. "This is a shameful act of naked aggression against the human rights of workers who make their living under the most dire circumstances," he said.

"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 labor in Mexico. We must challenge the Mexican government's role in suppressing workers upward mobility. "Mexico is our NAFTA trading partner," English said. "The promise of free trade is to lift all boats. Instead, we find ourselves on a treadmill in a race to the bottom. We want to see our Mexican brother and sister workers lift themselves up and through hard work and through organizing democratically-run labor unions, get a bigger piece of the economic pie that they are entitled to." The USW is a partner in a strategic alliance with Los Mineros, with the commitment to increase communication, collaboration and coordination across our national border in order to retain and build strength that provides both unions with effective countervailing force to the power of global capital and multinational corporations. The USW said that Gomez's troubles began following the mine disaster at Pasta de Concha, which is owned by Grupo Mexico.

Gomez accused Grupo Mexico of criminal homicide and the government of negligence and called for an investigation and removal of the minister of labor. Shortly after, he was removed as union leader by the labor minister and replaced by an individual who is not a union member, and Gomez's removal also violates Mexican Labor Law and international labor conventions. AFL-CIO Vice President Linda Chavez Thompson and Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George head the list of prominent labor leaders who are addressing the demonstration. ******************