From the Labor Commission of the CPUSA, updates, information, news, analysis, and organizing materials in solidarity with workers of the world.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Update on the Cananea Copper Mine situation


As labor and management continue to face off over the struck Cananea Copper Mine in Sonora, Mexico, U.S. labor solidarity activists are increasing their activity also.

More than 1,000 members of the Mexican National Mine and Metal Workers’ Union went on strike at the Cananea Copper Mine owned by the Grupo Mexico transnational, with links to the Arizona-based ASARCO Company, on July 30, 2007, mostly over safety issues but also over a 10 percent raise demand.

Union representatives claim that management had let conditions run down to the point that workers’ lives are endangered by carcinogenic dusts and a very high accident rate. They point to a disaster at another Grupo Mexico mine in Pasta de Conchos in Coahuila, Mexico in which 65 coal miners were killed by an explosion in February 2006 as an indication of management’s negligent attitude. Investigators have attributed the Pasta de Conchos disaster to failure of the management to follow elementary safety rules.

Story continues here.

No comments: