25 August, 2017Grupo Mexico has again used private security forces to evict a group of workers and former workers from the Cananea mine. The workers were protesting to demand benefits owed to them by the company.
Los Mineros, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, said that some demonstrators were injured in the early morning of 21 August and others were detained and taken to the local public prosecutor’s office.
“Workers and former workers were violently evicted by the company’s private security forces, armed with clubs and weapons only used by the army, just because they were protesting about the non-payment of their share in profits and other benefits owed to them by Grupo Mexico,” explained the president of Los Mineros and joint regional president of IndustriALL, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.
The workers have been protesting for a month on the railway lines that give access to the mine. They are calling on the Grupo Mexico consortium and its owner, Germán Feliciano Larrea Mota Velasco, to pay them what the company has owed them for ten years and to improve workplace safety.
Los Mineros issued a communique repudiating the company’s attitude and point out that this act of repression violated the right to petition and protest enshrined in Mexican legislation.
“Its aggressive and repressive conduct and the killings that have made this company notorious were displayed at recent events. The government must intervene in this situation to prevent further arbitrary actions,” said the union communique.
IndustriALL’s General Secretary, Valter Sanches, said:
“IndustriALL continues to firmly support Los Mineros and calls on Grupo Mexico to stop its violent union-busting practices."