VZCZCXRO5330
RR RUEHCD RUEHGA RUEHGD RUEHHA RUEHHM RUEHHO RUEHJO RUEHMC RUEHNG
RUEHNL RUEHPOD RUEHQU RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM RUEHVC
DE RUEHME #0126/01 0171638
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171638Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 2352
RUEHHO/AMCONSUL HERMOSILLO 3881
RUEHNG/AMCONSUL NOGALES 0577
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0165
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 000126 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILCSR, WHA/MEX AND USDOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PHUM PGOV PINR MX
SUBJECT: MEXICAN FEDERAL AND STATE AUTHORITIES MOVE 
AGRESSIVELY AGAINST STRIKING MINERS 
 
REF: 07 MEXICO 1927 
 
MEXICO 00000126  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: On January 11, several hundred federal and state 
policemen in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora stormed 
the approximately 1300 striking workers at the Cananea copper 
mine.  The strike at the Cananea mine began in July 2007. 
GOM federal labor authorities have previously used minor 
technicalities to declare the Cananea strike illegal but the 
striking miners union successfully obtained a court ordered 
injunction against the declaration.  This time, although a 
new federal labor authority declaration against the unionized 
workers gave them 24 hours to end the strike and return to 
their jobs, rather than risk being restrained by another 
injunction, the January 11 police action began just a few 
hours after the labor authorities issued their ruling.  The 
workers at the Cananea mine claim they are striking for 
better pay and over poor health and safety conditions. 
However, most informed observers strongly believe the strike 
is also part of an effort to support the head of the union 
who is in self-imposed exile in Canada awaiting the 
resolution of federal corruption charges.  According to 
various media reports the strike at Cananea is costing the 
mine,s owners over USD 3 million per day.  At this point the 
miners union has again obtained an injunction upholding the 
legality of the strike but in the meantime federal and state 
police now occupy the mine and several hundred workers have 
reportedly crossed the picket line.  This appears to be the 
first time the government of President Calderon has used 
force to intervene in a labor dispute.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
THE ROOTS OF A LONG-RUNNING STRIKE 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  In July of 2007 the unionized workers at the Cananea 
copper mine in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora went 
on strike.  The striking workers belong to the National Union 
of Miners and Metalworkers of the Mexican Republic 
(SNTMMSRM).  Until September of 2007, the SNTMMSRM had been 
the only such union in Mexico and it is still the country,s 
largest miners and metalworkers union.  The official reason 
for the strike was to demand better pay and to protest poor 
health and safety conditions. Both the owners of the Cananea 
mine and some responsible elements with the GOM,s federal 
labor authorities dismissed these claims as unfounded. 
However, in October 2007 a bi-national delegation of health 
and safety experts from Mexico and the U.S. visited the 
Cananea mine and did preliminary health screening for 68 of 
the 1300 strikers.  The delegation documented unsafe working 
conditions in the open-pit mine and processing plants where 
workers were exposed to high levels of airborne silica, which 
can cause fatal diseases like silicosis and lung cancer. 
¶3.  The seriousness of the claims regarding unsafe working 
conditions notwithstanding, most informed observers and the 
GOM,s Secretariat of Labor believe the strike is also part 
of an effort to support the Secretary General of the 
SNTMMSRM, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia.  The leader of the SNTMMSRM 
has been extremely critical of Grupo Mexico, the parent 
company  which owns the Cananea mine, and has gone to great 
lengths to obtain favorable treatment for (himself and) the 
union during collective bargaining negotiations.  Gomez is 
currently in self-imposed exile in Canada awaiting the 
resolution of federal corruption charges for allegedly 
embezzling USD 55 million in union pension funds.  GOM 
efforts to have Canada extradite Gomez have thus far been 
unsuccessful due to a lack of compelling evidence and many 
(but not all) of the changes against the SNTMMSRM leader have 
been dismissed on appeal in Mexican federal courts. 
¶4.  Cananea is the largest copper mine in Mexico and it 
employs some 1300 workers.  It has a production capacity of 
140,000 metric tons a year of copper concentrate and about 
50,000 metric tons of refined copper.  The Cananea strike is 
reportedly costing the company an estimated USD 3 million a 
day in lost sales, and also led it to lower its overall 
copper target for 2007 from 670,000 metric tons to 620,000 
metric tons at the most.  The Cananea mine is owned by the 
Southern Copper Corp. a publicly traded mining company based 
in Phoenix, Arizona that is itself majority owned by Grupo 
 
MEXICO 00000126  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Mexico.  Because of the size of this operation Cananea,s 
owners have repeatedly sought help from Mexican federal labor 
authorities and from the state government of Sonora to try 
and resolve its dispute with the union. 
 
FEDERAL AND STATE ACTION AGAINST STRIKING MINERS 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5.  Mexico,s constitution guarantees freedom of association 
and the right to strike.  The statutes that codify these 
rights are contained in Mexico,s &Federal Labor Law.8  In 
order to exercise the right to strike, Federal Labor Law 
establishes various administrative requirements, the two most 
important in this case being: (1) that only officially 
recognized unions can call for a strike and (2) before a 
strike can be considered legal a union must receive approval 
of a strike notice from the appropriate labor authorities. 
 
¶6.  In the case of the Cananea strike the appropriate 
authorities were the Sonora offices of the Federal 
Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) which operates 
under the jurisdiction of Mexico,s Secretariat of Labor. 
There is no question that SNTMMSRM is an officially 
recognized union and that it obtained formal approval from 
the JFCA to launch a strike.  After approval was received, 
and apparently at the request of Grupo Mexico, the JFCA 
reviewed the strike notice and subsequent labor actions and 
decided to declare the strike illegal because it allegedly 
began several hours earlier than the time authorized on the 
approved strike notice. 
 
¶7.  According to a statement by the Sonora Governor, Eduardo 
Bours, the state government was informed by the JFCA at some 
unspecified time on January 10.  Governor Bours said that the 
JFCA had declared the strike illegal and that state 
authorities had been asked to support federal policemen in 
their efforts to ensure the safe entrance to the mine of any 
employee who wanted to return to work.  It is not clear when 
the workers or the SNTMMSRM union were informed of the 
decision to declare the strike illegal.  The formal JFCA 
decision to declare the strike illegal also contained 
standard language giving the workers 24 hours to end their 
labor action and return to their jobs or face dismissal. 
 
¶8.  On January 11, Mexican federal and Sonora state police 
gathered mid-morning launched an assault to evict striking 
workers from the Cananea mine.  There are unconfirmed reports 
that federal and state police, supported by the Mexican army, 
used tear-gas and rubber bullets to dislodge SNTMMSRM members 
from the mine. Mexican press accounts reported roughly 20 
miners were injured and around 30 others briefly detained 
during the eviction. A counterattack by miners armed with 
Molotov cocktails resulted in some damage to property and 
vehicles, government officials charged.  The police action 
came just hours after the JFCA declared that the strike was 
illegal.  State and federal authorities have denied that 
anyone was injured in the attack on the workers but a 
SNTMMSRM spokesman repeatedly affirmed that injuries did take 
place. 
 
 
THE SITUATION AT CANANEA 
------------------------ 
 
¶9.  As soon as word of the police action became known lawyers 
striking workers filed a formal appeal in Mexican federal 
courts for an injunction against the for the JFCA ruling. 
While this was occurring, both the GOM,s Secretariat of 
Labor and the Sonora state government authorities defended 
the use of force at Cananea.  By the morning of January 12, a 
formal injunction had been approved granting provisional 
approval for the strike to continue.  The injunction gives 
the union approximately a week to respond to allegations that 
the strike was an illegal labor action.  In the meantime, all 
striking workers have been expelled from the mine and Cananea 
is now in the hands of federal and state police authorities. 
 
 
 
MEXICO 00000126  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶10.  Once federal and state police succeeded in removing 
striking workers from the mine, they quickly facilitated the 
return to the workplace of any Cananea employee who wanted to 
resume their jobs.  As an extra incentive to those 
considering returning to their jobs Cananea, offered striking 
workers a USD 1500.00 bonus, as well as subsidies to pay for 
home gas and electricity.  Either because of the incentives 
or because of harsh economic reality, up to a quarter of the 
total striking workers have returned to the mines.  At 
present the SNTMMSRM union members have the law on their side 
but the police and Grupo Mexico now have possession of the 
Cananea mine. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11.  The Cananea incident is the latest episode in a nearly 
two-year-old battle involving Napoleon Gomez, the SNTMMSRM 
union, Grupo Mexico and the GOM. This ongoing conflict 
significantly escalated after a February 2006 explosion at a 
Grupo Mexico coal mine in the northeastern state of Coahuila 
killed 65 workers. Soon thereafter, the administration of 
then President Vicente Fox pressed legal charges originating 
from an earlier accusation of embezzlement against Napoleon 
Gomez. Parallel to the legal moves against Gomez, the former 
Secretary of Labor recognized a rival leader who 
 
SIPDIS 
unsuccessfully attempted to take complete control of the 
union.  Meanwhile, as noted above, Gomez fled to Canada, and 
the two union factions battled for leadership of the 
organization. Presently a company-friendly union headed by 
former Grupo Mexico contractor Francisco Gamez is vying with 
Gomez,s union to represent SNTMMSRM workers and the 
administration of Mexico,s current President, Felipe 
Calderon has recently approved the formation of two other 
mining unions. 
 
¶12. The police action against the striking Cananea mine 
workers appears to be the first time the Calderon government 
has used force to intervene in a labor dispute.  Undoubtedly 
there are times when the use of force is clearly justified 
but the Cananea incident does not appear to be one of them; 
especially when the justification for the police action was 
that the union started its strike a few hours early.  The 
Cananea incident could have multiple implications for US. 
Aside from the obvious human rights issues, there are 
American interests involved on both sides of this labor 
dispute.  On one side there is a US company (Southern Copper 
Corp.) as a significant shareholder in the Cananea mine and 
on the other side the striking SNTMMSRM workers are heavily 
supported by the American United Steelworkers (USW) Union. 
No matter what the ultimate outcome of this incident, and at 
the moment the situation does not favor the striking union 
workers, one group or another in the US is going to be 
displeased. 
 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA