STRIKING MEXICAN MINE WORKERS UNDER ATTACK. MEXICO VIOLATES LABOUR LAWS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Let your MP know that you are outraged by the attack on striking miners in Mexico.
Demand that the Canadian government condemn the violent assault on striking miners in Mexico and its violation of labour laws and human rights. Demand that action be taken to ensure that Mexico respects NAFTA’s side agreements on labour.

(For more
background, read the USW news release. Click
here.)

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The Message:

I am writing to ask that you stand up for labour and human rights in Mexico. Workers in Mexico are under violent attack by federal and state police. I am outraged by this violence against workers. As a NAFTA trading partner, Mexico must live up to the NAFTA side agreements on labour. Canada must condemn this assault and take action.

On June 6, 2010, members of Section 65 of the Los Mineros union were attacked by Mexican state police. Backed by armed helicopters, more than 2,000 troops, federal and state police, invaded the Grupo Mexico copper mine and facilities in Cananea, Sonora, in an effort to evict the members of SNTMMSRM (“Los Mineros”) who have been on legal strike since July, 2007.

On the same day, 20 carloads of state police stormed a small group of miners and widows occupying the entrance to the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila state – the site of a February 2006 explosion that killed 65 miners employed by Grupo Mexico’s Industrial Minera. Five widows and two mothers of the dead miners were arrested and the mine was sealed from further entry.

Los Mineros, an independent Mexican union, has also been the target of repeated government attacks in the past. In April 2006, Mexican police forces fired on striking workers in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, killing two workers and injuring more than 100 others. A Los Mineros leader, Juan Linares, has been imprisoned in a Mexico City jail since December 2008, despite two court orders demanding his release. Just days before the police invasion of Cananea, a Mexican government official offered to free Linares in exchange for an end to his union’s strike in Cananea.

These are egregious violations of human and labour rights by our NAFTA trading partner. They are certainly violations of the NAFTA side agreement on labour (NAALC).

As your constituent, I am asking that you stand up for labour and human rights in Mexico. I am asking your party and our national government to speak out and condemn these violent attacks on workers. I am asking you to demand that action be taken to ensure that Mexico respects the NAFTA and NAALC agreement between our two countries.

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