Wildcat Miner's strike in Mexico.

[Cleita]

Things we don't know because our news has gone AWOL. With all the hateful talk about immigrants, I thought I would monitor the news on the Spanish cable channels I get. The big news is about the nationwide miner's strike in Mexico due to a mining accident.

The strike by members of the National Union of Mining and Metallurgical Workers of Mexico (SNTMMRM) resulted from both labor union issues and political causes. The explosion and cave in at the Pasta de Conchos mine in San Juan de Las Sabinas, Coahuila in northern Mexico trapped 65 miners, all of whom are presumed dead (their bodies have not yet been recovered). The Miners Union leader, Gómez Urrutia, blamed the employer, Grupo Mexico, calling the deaths “industrial homicide.”

This has triggered off strikes across the nation. For those who don't think Mexicans aren't trying to solve their problems, it would be nice if we got a better and balanced picture of what is going on in our hemisphere.

These are the English links I could find.

http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2006/03/articles/h.shtml

http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=755

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. 65 miners trapped and presumed dead and we didn't hear about it?

Jeeez!

[Cleita]

2. But you should see the strike action that the unions in

Mexico are doing nationwide. Our unions could learn something. Also, the Mexicans are having elections and this isn't helping Vicente Fox's party.

btw: Nice to see you back. :hi:

[eleny]

3. Mexico Miners' Union Says Police Kill 2 Strikers at Steelworks

A related story
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aYupFOjUiNw4&refer=latin_america

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Mexican miners' Union said police shot dead two workers at a steel plant operated by Villacero SA, Mexico's biggest producer of steel bars and wire rod, in an attempt to break a three-week-old picket line.

About 600 police shot tear gas and opened fire on workers at the company's steel plant in the southern state of Michoacan, killing two and wounding dozens more, the Mexican Mining Federation said in an e-mailed statement. The workers' families burned buses and blocked roads in response, the union said.

Workers went on strike at the plant April 2 to protest the company's support of a government move to remove Napoleon Gomez as leader of the union. Phone lines at the Secretary of Public Security office were busy.

[Cleita]

4. Thanks for the link.

A policeman got killed also according to the cable news.

When will our workers start blaming the corruption in government and the unions for their labor problems, like the Mexicans do, instead of the immigrants.

If labor joins up on both sides of the border to solve their problems of pay inequality, we could solve the immigrant problem and get rid of corrupt corporate governments on both sides of the border.

[eleny]

5. Here is another unrelated but relevant story that popped up

Miners' Strike Broken in Revolutionary Cananea
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=694

This strike happened in 1999 and was put down. But the story is so interesting as it's about a very historical mining town in northern Mexico. There's a history of the U.S. getting involved in this one. Be sure to read the section titles "Symbol of Insurrection" about the town of Cananea. I wonder if they joined this most recent nationwide strike?

Thanks for posting about the current strike. Looks like there's something in an Australian independent news source, too. But nothing mainstream.

[Cleita]

6. There are mainstream sources, but in Spanish.

Since most here don't read Spanish I didn't post them.

Interesting observation on your recent post.

Acosta concluded that the stakes are higher for U.S. unions as well, as a result of the strike. "When companies can pick up and go five miles to the other side of the border, where a miner earns less in a day than his relative on this side earns in an hour, can we find the solidarity to bridge the gap?" he asked.

"If we can't find the answer, we're all going to suffer."

[justice1]

7. I've been thinking the same thing.

[justice1]

8. I would appreciate you monitoring and posting.

It's difficult to try and resolve the issues that we have, when we only have access to U.S. stories. It would definitely give us a new perspective.

[Cleita]

9. I intend to do this from now on and I will

post English language versions of the stories we aren't hearing about when I can find them.

[eleny]

10. Maybe some of the translation site could help?

They don't do too bad a job translating Spanish to English.

[Cleita]

11. I could do that except it's time consuming.

This is why I looked for English stories already written. I'll do what I can. Also, I don't know how that would affect DU's four paragraph limit on stories.

[eleny]

12. I'd be glad to help

Keep me in mind.

[Cleita]

13. I will.

Thanks for the offer.