13 March, 2012The Mexican federal police have arrested 12 trade union leaders participating in a sit-in and also arrested José Luis Solorio, General Secretary of the Honda workers' union reflecting a hardening of the Mexican government's anti-trade union policies.
MEXICO: José Luis Solorio Alcalá, General Secretary of the National Trade Union of Honda Workers (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Honda de México, STUHM), was arrested on March 1 in El Salto, Jalisco, simply for fighting for a collective agreement between workers and their employer. A few hours earlier, the company's security guards insulted and assaulted workers who were leafleting outside the factory. In May 2010, a large number of company employees founded STUHM in order to try and deal with a series of irregularities, arbitrary actions and abuses against their labour rights.
Meanwhile, members of the Electrical Workers' Union (Sindicato de Electricistas de México, SME) held a sit-in in front of the Federal Electricity Commission offices on March 8, which was repressed by the federal police with excessive use of force. The workers were demanding the reinstatement of 16,599 union members, who have not accepted their dismissals, and the release of 12 colleagues held as political prisoners. The repression resulted in the arrest of 12 leaders (retired and still employed) and several members of the public were also arrested for showing their solidarity with the SME. They were released after 20 hours in detention.
The electrical workers condemned the federal police action, which "demonstrates the Calderon government's inability and intransigence when dealing with a social conflict that the government itself provoked through the arbitrary closure of the company that employed us".
As with the Miners' Union, the SME is asking the National Human Rights Commission to take preventive measures against the increase in federal government repression and the persecution of its activists and leaders.
The IMF condemns all acts of repression against those defending labour and trade union rights. The General Secretary of the Mexican National Miner's Union, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, expressed his solidarity with Mexico's independent trade union movement, saying there was no doubt that these events reflect a hardening in the Mexican government's anti-trade union policy (see separate article in Spanish).