Mexico’s Mineros Leader Honored with Meany-Kirkland Award
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Exiled Mexican mine workers union leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia will be honored with the AFL-CIO’s 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award tonight at a ceremony at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says Gómez Urrutia is a ”truly courageous man who has shown us how difficult and how important it is to be an independent leader of a democratic union.”
Gómez Urrutia, head of the Mine, Metal and Steel Workers Union (SNTMMSSRM), also known as Los Mineros, was forced to flee Mexico to Vancouver, Canada, in 2006. The Mexican government filed criminal charges against him after he publicly accused the government of “industrial homicide” following a February mine explosion that killed 65 miners.
Mexican and international human and labor rights organizations have dismissed the government’s charges as false.
Mexico’s Mineros to Receive Meany-Kirkland Award
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Over the past five years, the Mexican government has unleashed a systematic attack on workers’ rights. Despite the continuing repression, Mexico’s independent, democratic unions organize and represent the rights of workers. Some of the most egregious attacks have been on the Mine, Metal and Steel Workers Union (SNTMMSSRM), also known as Los Mineros.
The AFL-CIO is awarding Los Mineros and their leader, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award. The award will be formally presented later this year. Click here to read the resolution in English and here for Spanish.
Gómez was first elected general secretary of the SNTMMSSRM in 2002 and immediately began challenging government policies of low wages and flexible labor markets, and building alliances with the global trade union movement.
AFL-CIO: Mexican Court Ruling Eliminates Right to Strike
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today condemned the Feb. 11 decision by a Mexican appeals court to allow the Grupo Mexico mining company to fire 1,200 striking workers, members of the National Union of Mine and Metalworkers (SNTMMSRM), at its Cananea copper mine.
In a statement, Trumka said that by finding the strike illegal, despite the lack of evidence to support its decision, the court effectively eliminated the right to strike in Mexico.
Trumka reaffirmed the strong support of the U.S. union movement for the SNTMMSRM and condemned the Mexican government’s four-year-long campaign to destroy the independent union.
AFL-CIO Urges Obama to Discuss Workers’ Rights in Mexico
As President Obama travels to Mexico today, the AFL-CIO is calling for the U.S. and Mexican governments to make human and workers’ rights a key part of the agenda.
The AFL-CIO strongly believes that security and prosperity in North America must be based on respect for human rights. According to the AFL-CIO International Department:
While we applaud the administration’s recent initiatives to support Mexican efforts to control the drug cartels, the federation is calling on the U.S. to clearly state that all security operations funded by U.S. taxpayers must respect human rights. Such a policy is particularly important in view of the many violations, nearly all unpunished, that have been documented by respected Mexican and international human rights groups.
