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RR RUEHCD RUEHGA RUEHGD RUEHHA RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHMT RUEHNG RUEHNL
RUEHQU RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM RUEHVC
DE RUEHME #1191/01 1182059
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 282059Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 2513
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6276
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 001191 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILSCR, WHA/MEX, USDOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON AFL CIO PGOV SOCI PINR MX
SUBJECT: UNITED STEETWORKERS UNION HIGHLIGHTS CONTINUING 
DISPUTE BETWEEN GOM, MINING INDUSTRY AND THE NATIONAL 
MINERS, UNION 
 
REF: 07 MEXICO 1925 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: Secretary Clinton,s recent visit to Mexico 
prompted the US president of the United Steelworkers Union 
(USW) to write to her on behalf of Mexico,s National Miners 
Union (SNTMMSRM).  The letter, which received extensive media 
coverage, highlighted various aspects of the long running 
dispute between Mexico,s mining industry, the SNTMMSRM and 
the current and previous GOM administrations.  At roughly the 
same time a number of pending court cases involving the GOM 
and the SNTMMSRM were tentatively decided.  The net results 
of these court decisions effectively insured that the two 
sides would continue their ongoing dispute for the 
foreseeable future.  Some of the questions involved in the 
larger dispute with the Miners, Union on one side and a de 
facto alliance between the mining industry and the GOM on the 
other involve such issues as the right of workers to 
organize, to freely choose their representatives and the 
right to bargain collectively vs. the GOM,s efforts to end 
alleged union corruption and to support the rights of 
individual workers who disagree with the union,s leadership. 
 END SUMMARY. 
 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2.  A long running dispute between two leaders within 
Mexico,s National Union of Miners and Metalworkers 
(SNTMMSRM) was further complicated in 2006 when the 
administration of then President Vicente Fox became involved. 
 The leaders in question were Napoleon Gomez Urrutia; the 
then officially recognized head of the union, and Elias 
Morales Hernandez, a long-time union official.  The struggle 
between them began in 2002 when both ran to become SNTMMSRM 
Secretary General, the union,s top elected executive 
position.  Ultimately Gomez won and became the leader of the 
SNTMMSRM.  Morales never accepted his defeat and argued that 
Gomez was ineligible to serve as union leader since 
(allegedly) he had never actually worked as a miner; a 
minimum requirement for office outlined in the SNTMMSRN 
statues. 
 
¶3.  Four years into his term as the legal head of the 
SNTMMSRN, Gomez was ousted from his position by Morales and 
his supporters on the union,s internal affairs unit (CVJ) 
with the concurrence of the then Fox administration,s Labor 
Secretariat (STPS).  The basis for Gomez, removal was an 
allegation that he embezzled USD 55 million in union trust 
funds.  The allegation was based on a document of 
questionable validity from the CVJ requesting that the GOM 
remove Gomez from office because of his fraudulent 
activities.  The GOM took no action to validate the 
accusations against Gomez.  Instead, the Fox government,s 
STPS withdrew its recognition of Gomez as the head of the 
SNTMMSRN, filed various criminal charges against him and 
unilaterally declared Morales the new union Secretary 
General.  The GOM also finally accepted Morales, claim that 
Gomez never met the qualifications for elected union office 
since he never actually worked as a miner. 
 
¶4. In response to these GOM actions, Gomez fled to Canada 
where he continually proclaims his innocence.  Initially 
Gomez provided little in the way of a convincing accounting 
of what happened to the USD 55 million which was last seen in 
one of the Mexican branches of a Canadian bank.  Gomez, 
removal as the leader of the miners, union generated 
considerable interest and controversy in labor circles both 
within Mexico and internationally.  Most, although certainly 
not all, of the union,s rank and file continued to support 
Gomez.  Many of Mexico,s established unions also came out in 
his support.  Internationally, the United Steelworkers unions 
(USW) in the US and Canada strongly supported Gomez.  The USW 
even filed a submission on the SNTMMSRN's behalf under the 
terms of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation 
(NAALC), a side agreement to NAFTA.  Unfortunately for the 
SNTMMSRN, the submission was declined. 
 
 
Calderon Administration Tries a Different Tact 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
MEXICO 00001191  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶5.  Shortly after taking office in December 2006, President 
Felipe Calderon,s government moved quickly to solve the 
SNTMMSRN leadership dispute.  According to a senior STSP 
official, the Calderon government believed the Fox 
administration needlessly took sides in an internal union 
matter and wanted to find a way to reinstate Gomez as the 
leader of the Miners, Union.  This was ultimately 
accomplished via a labor court ruling which determined that 
Gomez had been improperly removed from office.  The same 
court ordered that Gomez be reinstated as SNTMMSRN Secretary 
General for the remainder of his original elected term of 
office. 
 
 
GOM and Union Clash Once Again 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. In retrospect it now appears that the Calderon government 
had hoped Gomez would serve out his terms and then quietly 
step down or at least avoid confrontation.  Instead the 
SNTMMSRN continually pushed for wage settlements in excess of 
GOM recommendations and which surpassed salary increases 
accepted by other unions.  The SNTMMSRN also associated 
itself with Mexico,s main opposition party and repeatedly 
took public stances opposing GOM initiatives.  By mid-2007, 
in the face of what it probably viewed as SNTMMSRN 
intransigence, the Calderon government renewed the 
embezzlement charges against Gomez first filed by the Fox 
administration and then vigorously pressed Canada to 
extradite him to face criminal charges in Mexico.  Thus far 
the Canadian government has declined to accept the GOM,s 
arguments that Gomez, handling of the trust rises to the 
level of criminal activity and consequently has refused to 
order his extradition. 
 
¶7. Once the Calderon government renewed the criminal charges 
against Gomez, it and the SNTMMSRN initiated a series of 
court cases against each other.  Many of these cases dealt in 
one way or other with the allegedly embezzled USD 55 million. 
 At issue was the GOM position that the funds belonged to the 
workers and not to the union.  The SNTMMSRN argued that the 
funds were given to the union to administer for the workers 
as determined by the organization,s duly elected leadership. 
 Over the following months the union presented information in 
the courts which purported to provide an accounting of trust 
fund disbursements. 
 
¶8. In May 2008 Gomez,s term of office ended and, despite 
self-imposed exile in Canada, he ran for and won reelection 
as union Secretary General.  This reelection notwithstanding, 
the GOM argued that he was ineligible to hold union office 
since he had never worked as a miner as required by SNTMMSRN 
statues.  On the basis of these statues the GOM refused to 
grant official recognition to Gomez.  Without official 
recognition Gomez cannot be legally ratified as SNTMMSRN 
leader. Gomez subsequently sued the GOM to have his 
reelection legally recognized. 
 
 
USW Renews Its Supports for the Miners, Union 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  Internationally the GOM,s actions were viewed as 
harassment and the USW and the International Metalworkers 
Federation both began a letter writing campaign on behalf of 
the SNTMMSRN.  The majority of these letters were written to 
President Calderon but the most recent one was addressed by 
the USW to Secretary Hillary Clinton.  The letter was sent by 
USW president Leo W. Gerard and timed to coincide with the 
Secretary,s visit to Mexico. 
 
¶10.  The USW letter accused both the Fox and Calderon 
administrations of a sustained three year &attack8 on the 
SNTMMSRN and urged the Secretary to reject Mexico,s 
anti-worker policies and repudiate the GOM,s assaults on 
Gomez.  Some of the accusations against the GOM were as 
follows: 
 
-     The USW decried the Fox administration,s actions 
removing Gomez from office and the Calderon administration,s 
 
MEXICO 00001191  003 OF 004 
 
 
refusal to recognize his reelection; 
 
-     It condemned the GOM,s repeated filling of criminal 
charges against Gomez for embezzlement despite the fact that 
the courts have repeatedly ruled in the union leader,s 
favor; 
 
-     Rejected the GOM,s support for the mining industry,s 
efforts to replace the SNTMMSRN with company friendly unions 
in at least eight locations; 
 
-     Disparaged the GOM,s actions to declare SNTMMSRN 
strikes illegal only to have the courts rule against these 
government declarations again and again. 
 
 
The Courts Decide ) It,s A Tie 
------------------------------ 
 
¶11.  In the weeks since Secretary Clinton,s March 23-24 
visit, the Mexican courts have ruled on many of cases the 
SNTMMSRN and the GOM have filed against each other.  The 
initial round in this legal battle went to Gomez and his 
supporters in the Miners, Union.  The competent courts 
authorized an injunction against prosecution for Gomez over 
his handling of the USD 55 million dollars in union trust 
fund.  Gomez, lawyers immediately issued a press statement 
claiming that the rulings removed the basis for the criminal 
charges against Gomez and any foundation the GOM had for the 
extradition request made to Canadian authorities.  Dissidents 
within the union, whom the GOM says it is representing, claim 
funds were to be given to individual workers affected by 
privatization and not to be handled as the union saw fit. 
The GOM plans to re-file the case on that basis. 
 
¶12.  The second round went to the GOM.  When the STPS refused 
to recognize Gomez, reelection as union leader this past May 
he filed a court suit to force the GOM to recognize his 
electoral victory.  In this matter the courts ruled that 
there is no credible evidence to indicate that Gomez ever 
worked as a miner as required by SNTMMSRN statute for holding 
elected union office.  On that basis the courts ruled that 
the GOM was fully justified in denying him legal recognition 
as the head of the Miners, union.  The question of Gomez, 
eligibility to serve in an elected union position has been 
pending since 2002.  The GOM clearly won this round but 
Gomez,s lawyers have already indicated they planned to 
appeal this case. 
 
¶13.  Of the other remaining court cases the union and GOM 
have filed against each other one of the most significant 
involves the legality of a strike by some 1200 workers at the 
Cananea mine in the western Mexican coastal state of Sonora. 
This strike is more than two years olds and the GOM and 
mining industry jointly filed suit to have the strike 
declared illegal.  On March 29 a labor court ruled that the 
strike was indeed illegal and that the mine owners were free 
to fire any employee who did not immediately return to work. 
This labor court decision was widely reported in the media as 
a serious blow to Gomez and the SNTMMSRN and it surely would 
have been had it been allowed to stand.  However, the union 
appealed the decision and during the week of April 13 won its 
case in court.  The mining industry and the GOM will almost 
certainly re-file it case to have the Cananea strike declared 
illegal.  This particular case appears to be a tie. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶14.  For now the long running struggle between the SNTMMSRN, 
the GOM and mining industry appears to be deadlocked.  The 
three major court cases cite above that currently define the 
conflict have effectively resulted in a stalemate.  In 
reviewing this matter it appear that many of the points 
raised by the USW have some validity up to a point.  There is 
no doubt that both the Fox and the Calderon administration 
have had their differences with the SNTMMSRN.  In some cases 
it appears the GOM acted improperly to resolve these 
differences in its favor.  For example, the Fox 
administration,s action to remove Gomez as union leader was 
highly questionable.  Subsequent information tends to 
 
MEXICO 00001191  004 OF 004 
 
 
indicate that Gomez acted within his authority to handle the 
USD 55 million in trust funds as he saw fit.  That said, the 
GOM,s position that it was defending the rights of dissident 
workers within the union unhappy with how the trust funds 
were being used, is a valid point. 
 
¶15.  Mexican law is unclear on whether the union or an 
individual worker can ultimately decide on how organization 
resources are used.  Mexican legal precedent would argue in 
favor of the union. However, experience has shown that many 
unions are indifferent to the wishes of individual members so 
the GOM could justifiably argue a need to police the actions 
of corrupt unions.  In looking at whether the GOM could 
legally deny recognition of Gomez reelection both sides have 
compelling points to make.  Gomez and his supports can argue 
that workers have the right to choose their representatives. 
The GOM can legitimately claim that the union must uphold its 
own statutes.  In this case, the statutes say that persons 
seeking elected union office must have actually worked as a 
miner.  Serious questions have been raised about Gomez,s 
claim regarding his eligibility for office; many of which 
have not been credibly resolved.  In short, neither side in 
this dispute can reliably claim to have acted correctly one 
hundred percent of the time.  This lack of earnestness by all 
sides surely means that the disputes between them will 
continue to be played out in the Mexican courts for some time 
to come. 
 
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 / 
BASSETT