600 Mexico police and marines force out striking workers, one dead

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20322509.htm

MEXICO CITY, April 20 (Reuters) - More than 600 Mexican police and marines forced striking steel workers away from a steel complex on Thursday and the union said one person had been shot dead.

Villacero Chief Financial Officer, Ignacio Trevino, told Reuters his steel company had regained control of the Sicartsa complex in the central state of Michoacan, which had been blocked by striking workers.

[Leopolds Ghost]

1. Wow. And yet all too many "progressives" will contine to insist...

That the best way to ensure upward mobility for Latin Americans is to encourage mobility of the workforce and encourage these very same strikers to "immigrate to the US if they don't like the conditions here" as Vicente Fox put it. Or as Bush put it in a recent school visit, "if you don't work hard your jobs will go to India and China."

A mobile wokforce is easier to suppress, easier to kill (they can be written off as migrant laborers not from around here) and easier to trun into scabs in some foreign country (the US) after their jobs have been lost back home.

[Horse with no Name]

2. I guess that is how they bust Unions in Mexico

With policia and marines.
Related story:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20060407&ID=5616741
Mexican steel maker Grupo Villacero fired 300 unionized workers who are leading a strike at its mills in the Pacific port city of Lazaro Cardenas, a company official said.

Ignacio Trevino, chief financial officer for Villacero, based in the northern city of Monterrey, said Friday the company rescinded the contracts of 300 union workers who led the walkout that started Monday.

The strike, which started Monday over a dispute between the union and the Labor Ministry over the union leadership, is also affecting the Mexican unit of Mittal Steel Co.

Mittal is among Mexico's biggest steel makers, with annual production of around 3.8 million metric tons (4.2 million U.S. tons) of slab. Villacero is the country's biggest producer of rebar.

Also interesting:
>>>snip
Villacero is a steel conglomerate of time-tested companies producing, transforming, processing and distributing quality-certified steel products in Mexico, the NAFTA region, and the rest of the World.
We are the largest producer of long products, and the largest distributor of steel products in Mexico. Villacero has distribution facilities, sales offices, and service centers strategically located throughout Mexico.
The company also has distribution, production and transformation facilities in the US and a world-wide steel trading company based in Germany, with a network of sales offices conveniently located around the World dedicated to globally trade steel products and raw materials.
http://www.villacero.com/english/acerca_quienes.html

>>>snip
Mexican steel strike

Steel workers at the Lázaro Cárdenas mill in Michoacán, Mexico, went on strike August 2 following an impasse in negotiations. Picket lines went up following a statement by the finance and administration director of Grupo Villacero, which owns the mill, chiding the union for its “intransigence.”

The National Mining and Metalworkers union (SNTMMS) charged management with multiple violations of the current collective bargaining agreement. As a precondition for restarting negotiations, it is demanding an agreement on safety measures in buses that transport workers, training and advancement opportunities for its members, and the rehiring of seven fired employees.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/wkrs-a09_prn.shtml