The United Steelworkers (USW) in the U.S. and Canada and UNITE the Union in the U.K. and Ireland congratulate Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, President and General Secretary of Los Mineros of Mexico, on his nomination by the MORENA party as a candidate for the Mexican Senate in the July 1, 2018 elections.
Gómez is no. 6 on the list of at- candidates for at-large seats, which are filled by proportional representation.
MORENA’s Presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is leading in the polls.
López Obrador has called on the Mexican government to end its political persecution of Gómez and allow him to return from Canada, where he has lived since 2006 after the government brought false criminal charges against him.
The charges were thrown out by the Mexican courts in 2014 but Mexico has refused to guarantee Gómez’s safe return.
Under Gómez’s leadership, Los Mineros have led the fight for democratic unions and genuine labor rights in Mexico that would allow workers to earn decent wages.
They have joined with unions in the U.S. and Canada to demand enforceable labor rights in NAFTA and have fought against proposed labor law reforms that would weaken rights and reduce wages even further.
Los Mineros, UNITE and the USW have joined together in a global union, Workers Uniting, to fight for strong, democratic collective bargaining on a global level.