Contact: Ben Davis, 412-562-2501, bdavis@usw.org
The United Steelworkers union (USW) today welcomed the U.S. government’s announcement that it accepted for review a petition against Grupo Mexico, a mining conglomerate owned by Germán Larrea, Mexico’s second-wealthiest person.
The petition, filed by the Mexican National Mineworkers’ Union (SNTMMSSRM), the United Steelworkers, and the AFL-CIO, comes under the rapid response labor mechanism of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA).
It asserts that Grupo Mexico is violating Mexican labor laws by using strikebreakers to operate the San Martín mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas.
“When companies break the law to keep wages low in Mexico, it hurts both Mexican and American workers,” said United Steelworkers International President Tom Conway. “We stand in solidarity with the Mexican mineworkers and their leader, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.”
Grupo Mexico has a history of labor and environmental conflicts in Mexico, including an explosion at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006 that killed 65 workers and the spill of toxic mine waste into the Sonora River in 2014.
In the United States, the company’s Asarco division is currently on trial before an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board. It is facing unfair labor practice complaints stemming from a strike by workers at its operations in Arizona and Texas that ended in 2020.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.