Steelworkers to Rally

The Fox government in Mexico has replaced Napoleon Gomez Urrutia as president of Los Mineros, the National Miners and Metallurgical Union. The Steelworkers Union has labeled Fox's actions "naked aggression" and demanded that he immediately reinstate Gomez and restore his personal assets and those of the union, all of which were frozen by the government.
"The USW views your actions as naked aggression against Los Mineros," Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard wrote in a letter to Mexican President Vincentc Fox. The letter condemned the Mexican government's actions as "a blatant attempt to stifle the voice of workers and all progressive unions in Mexico," coming as they have a short time before the Mexican elections.
Gomez has been a leading voice in opposing changes to Mexican law sought by the Fox regime that would outlaw strikes. He has rallied support among independent unions in opposition to the legislation and is one of a growing number of Mexican leaders openly condemning the negative impacts of NAFTA and so-called free trade policies.
The government's action came on the heels of a strike by Los Mineros in protest to the decision of the Mexican government to seal the mine owned by Grupo Mexico and prematurely end the rescue efforts to reach 65 miners trapped as a result of a Feb. 19 underground gas explosion.
"These actions by Fox's government make a mockery of Mexican `democracy,"' Gerard said in making public his Executive Board's resolution. "This kind of blatant suppression of free trade unionism rips away what little pretense remains that the Fox regime is anything but thugs in three piece suits."
The Steelworkers and Los Mineros signed a strategic alliance last April, in which they committed to defend the human rights of each other's members. In fact, Gomez led hundreds of his members in a protest in Mexico City last year on behalf of Steelworkers in the U.S. who had been forced out on strike by Asarco, a mining company owned by Grupo Mexico.

Rally at the
Indianapolis
Mexican
Consulate
We will gather at the Pan Am Plaza located at South
Capital and Georgia St.
Monday March 27
11:30 am
For more information contact Sal
or Brett at the United Steelworkers
1-800-932-8007