Cananea Mine Strike: Grupo Mexico wants canaries, not workers

author : Anne Fischel | John Regan topic : Strike | Cananea | Mexico | Labor

by Anne Fischel and John Regan

In Cananea, Mexico, a major struggle for workers’ rights and justice has been taking place for 6 months. Over 1300 copper miners, members of Section 65 of the Union of Mine, Metal and Allied Workers, are on strike against Grupo Mexico, the corporate giant who controls the Cananea mine. Since July, they have persistently asserted their rights to job safety and to worker and community health.

The Cananea copper mine is the largest in Mexico and one of the largest in the world. It was here, in 1906, that workers struck against a two-tiered wage policy that paid white workers more than Mexican workers. The mine’s US owner sent for Arizona vigilantes and Mexican President Porforio Diaz sent federal troops to quell the strike. This event is widely known in Mexican history and is seen as the precursor to the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

For many years the mine was the property of the Mexican government, but in 1988 the government auctioned off many public resources, including the Cananea mine, which was acquired at bargain prices by Grupo Mexico.

Today, copper prices have soared to over $3 a pound. In the third quarter of 2007 Grupo Mexico reported a consolidated net quarterly income of $498.9 million, 27% higher than the previous year. In the same quarter, the company announced a new investment program in Peru and “suspended indefinitely” an investment program in Cananea, “due to lack of labor stability.”

The miners have been on strike since July. They occupied the mine and resisted numerous attempts by the company and its political allies to declare the strike illegal. On Dec. 13, 2007 they won a legal victory when the Mexican Federal Court approved an injunction, or “amparo” protecting the legality of the strike. But on Jan. 11, the government declared the strike illegal. Hours later, 800 federal troops arrived in Cananea to oust the workers from the mine. Helicopters bombed the strikers with tear gas, and beat them with clubs. 20 miners were injured, some seriously, and miners and their families were arrested.

The next day the government reversed its position, declaring the union had a legal right to strike and that Grupo Mexico could not fire the workers. By then the company was in possession of the mine. At first, Grupo Mexico announced production would begin immediately and called on the miners to return to work. But when the workers refused, the company changed its tune, asserting it would conduct a three-month inspection of the plant to repair so-called damage created by the strikers. “All who wish to work will be welcomed back,” said the company news release (broadcast repeatedly on Mexican radio and television).

Union members are holding out. Although US news services reported that 450 workers returned to work last week, the union estimates the number at less than 45. “They just added on a zero,” joked one miner. The plant is eerily silent, with federal troops and police barricading the entrances. No one goes in or out without permission, and a steady stream of cars, driven by union activists, patrol the entrances to make sure the strike is holding.

We visited Cananea on Jan. 21 catching a bus from the US–Mexico border. The hour-long bus ride ended at a station in an industrial part of town. As we walked down Avenida Obregon a convoy of police cars passed us. We followed them down the hill to the old town, and found ourselves next to the union hall. There were at least a hundred workers near a bonfire which offered protection from the cold and another hundred inside the hall. We were warmly welcomed, and quickly ushered inside.

The miners are striking for safety and health. In October members of the Maquila Health and Safety Support Network conducted an inspection of the mine. They documented safety violations—workers exposed to silica dust which can cause silicosis and lung cancer. Dust collectors have been inoperable for years. Ventilation systems are inadequate, and accidents occur regularly. The report paints “a clear picture of a workplace being deliberately run into the ground. A serious lack of preventive maintenance, failure to repair equipment and correct visible safety hazards…has created a work site where workers have been exposed to high levels of toxic dusts and acid mists, operate malfunctioning and poorly maintained equipment, and work in … dangerous surroundings.” The report called for a massive clean up, a comprehensive health and safety remediation plan and extensive medical monitoring for all workers.

The miners want the company to remedy these long-standing threats to safety and health. They want good medical care for themselves and their families. Currently workers and their families receive company-funded medical care at the Hospital Ronquillo, an aging facility where miners complain that test results cannot be trusted. In 1999, the government and Grupo Mexico closed a well-equipped hospital which was funded by the company and administered by the union, the Clinica Obrera—leaving only the Hospital Ronquillo. “We are upholding our basic rights, guaranteed us by the constitution,” said Sergio Tolano Lizarraga, Secretary-General of Section 65. “Our strike is nonviolent and legitimate. The violence of the soldiers was an offense to the workers and the whole community. All we want is to work safely and to care for our families. The company is supported by the government and the media. Journalists who tried to tell our story were threatened. We are determined, but we need support from international organizations.”

One organization supporting the miners’ strike is the United Steelworkers Union. The Steelworkers are the main union at the mines and smelter of Asarco, the American Smelting and Refining Company. Once an independent US company, Asarco was bought by Grupo Mexico in 1999. In 2005, Asarco declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its financial future is being determined by a court in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2007, the court stripped Grupo Mexico of its control of Asarco and turned oversight of company operations over to a three-member board which includes Steelworkers District 12 Region Director, Terry Bonds. The two unions have signed solidarity agreements to support each other’s struggles. The Steelworkers also filed a grievance under NAFTA, charging Mexico with undermining labor rights by prosecuting the president of the national union, Napolean Gomez, and trying to replace the militant miners union with a more compliant group. They want Grupo Mexico to accept responsibility for the deadly explosion at its Pasta de Conchos mine which killed 65 miners in 2006, an explosion Gomez called “industrial homicide.“ “This report of the Maquila Health and Safety Network should serve as a wake-up call to Grupo México,” said Manuel Armenta, USW’s District 12 Sub-Director. “We are trying to prevent another disaster like Pasta de Conchos.”

As the price of copper rises to all-time highs, the unsolved issue of Grupo Mexico’s responsibility to its workers and their community haunts this historic town. The workers will continue to press their demands. “Safety, respect, health,” says Secretary-General Lizarraga. These are basic rights to which all workers are entitled. If the government does not protect our rights it is saying we are merely slaves to profit. That, we will never accept.”

For more information about the Cananea strike, see the websites of photojournalist David Bacon ( http://dbacon.igc.org ) and the Maquila Health and Safety Support Network ( http://mhssn.igc.org/CananeaOHSReport.pdf ).

Anne Fischel is an Evergreen State professor and John Regan is a resident of Centralia.