The United Steelworkers (USW) today accused the Mexican government of violating its own Constitution and labor laws, as well as Convention 87 of the International Labor Organization by unilaterally liquidating Central Light & Power Company (LyF); firing all 44,000 employees of LyF; and effectively dissolving the SME union by this mass firing, by the interference in the SME internal elections and by the freezing of SME assets.

In a letter to Mexican ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, USW International President Leo W. Gerard called for the government to reconsider its action.

“It is clear to us that all of this was done with the intention to destroy the SME, one of the few independent and democratic unions in Mexico,” Gerard wrote, “and that these actions constituted a dramatic violation of Mexico's obligations under by ILO Convention 87 and under the NAALC ... more