At the same time, the rest of the 270,000-member National Union of Mine, Metal and Allied Workers (SNTMMS) struck for two days in response to government attempts to intervene in their union and replace the union’s general secretary.

Workers reported that safety is an ongoing problem at the open-pit Cananea mine, which employs 1,300 union members.

“The biggest problems are with the explosives,” said Ernesto Quijada, a contract worker who is currently installing walkways at the mine. He described how one worker lost his leg when the loader he was operating caused an unexploded charge to go off.

“We went on strike because we want an agreement with Grupo Mexico to resolve all the safety problems that we have in the mines,” Guadalupe Coronado, general secretary of SNTMMS Section 65, which organizes the Cananea mine, told the Militant in a March 5 interview here. “We don’t want the loss of life or limb.”

Besides the problems with explosives, Coronado cited poor maintenance of trucks and other equipment, and the danger of silicosis from breathing rock dust.

Under pressure from families of those killed, the company resumed efforts March 3 to recover the bodies of the 65 coal miners at Pasta de Conchos, near the town of San Juan de Sabinas in Coahuila state. Many fear the company will close the mine, leaving their loved ones entombed and preventing a full investigation.

Most of the families are refusing to accept compensation from the company until they receive an explanation of how the miners died and who was responsible. More than 200 relatives of miners marched down the main street of Nueva Rosita to the company’s offices March 5 demanding, “Justice, justice, punish those responsible!”

As miners and others pressed the question of safety, Mexico’s labor secretary, Francisco Salazar, announced that the government no longer recognized Napoleón Gómez Urrutia as general secretary of the union and that instead Elías Morales, an opponent of Gómez Urrutia, was the new union head.

Workers at silver mines, steel mills, and other workplaces organized by the SNTMMS struck March 1 in response to this governmental interference in the internal affairs of their union. The federal government called the walkouts illegal.

The government says it is investigating Gómez Urrutia for allegedly mishandling $55 million that Grupo Mexico paid union members to settle a dispute stemming from its purchase of the previously state-owned Cananea and La Caridad copper mines.

Miners in Cananea have a long history of struggle, including a general strike in 1906 that helped spark the Mexican revolution. The copper mines there were nationalized in 1961.

In 1989 the government of Carlos Salinas sent in the army to smash a strike by workers at Cananea in order to pave the way for the sell-off of the mines. Grupo Mexico—which owns mines, railroads, and other enterprises throughout Mexico as well as in the United States and South America—took over in 1990.

Simultaneous with the strike, a group called the Association of Retired Miners of Section 65, made up of workers who lost their jobs in the 1989 strike, blockaded the Section 65 union hall, demanding a share of the $55 million and calling for the removal of Gómez Urrutia. They are maintaining a daily presence in front of the hall and refuse to allow union members to enter.

Asked why they are occupying the place, Salvador Stabroff said, “The union is not bad, but there’s problems with the center.”

Workers began returning to their jobs March 2 at Cananea and most other worksites. “We are showing we don’t want to stop production, but we want respect and safe working conditions,” Coronado said.

Betsy McDonald contributed to this article.
 
 
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