Defiant: Los Mineros say international solidarity is helping them endure a difficult struggle.
This past June 19th the Mexican miner’s union (Los Mineros) held a National Forum in the town of Cananea, in Mexico’s northern State of Sonora. Chuck Kennedy of ILWU Local 30, himself a miner from Boron, summed up the spirit at the forum, saying: “These miners could very easily have put their hands in their pockets bowed their heads and shuffled off into the shadows. But here they are, standing tall, shaking their fists, screaming epitaphs at the top of their voices and saying what they’re going to do to challenge their employer, Grupo Mexico, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.These workers are showing no fear.”
Kennedy and I were representing the ILWU, in the same way that so many international unions had offered help and support to Local 30 members who were locked out of their mine earlier this year in Boron, CA by the international mining company Rio Tinto.
The history of Los Mineros in the copper town of Cananea goes back to 1906. At that time, the copper mine was owned by Col. William Green, a U.S. citizen. The Mexican miners were asking for equal pay with their American coworkers. The striking miners were attacked by the Arizona Rangers who invaded Mexico to defend the American-owned mining company.
Solidarity for Mexican copper miners in Cananea: L-R: ILWU Local 63 pensioner Lewis Wright, Local 30 member Chuck Kennedy, USW Organizer Manney Armenta, and USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson visited with other miners from Mexico, Canada and the U.S., including some pictured here.
When the Rangers attacked, 26 miners were gunned down. Mexican President Diaz also sent troops to defend the foreign company, helping to spark the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920. Two years ago in Lazaro Cardenas, the pacific coast port city in the state of Michoacán, Los Mineros were on strike and attacked by federal police. Two union members were gunned down and killed. TV news showed miners being chased and beaten to the ground by federal police who continued the beatings until they were exhausted.
The mineworkers had struck over the wanton loss of sixty miners who died on the job inside the mine; their bodies were left inside while widowed wives continued to hold a vigil in front of the mine. The company had been repeatedly cited for failing to fix the cause of the accident. The union charged the company with “Industrial Homicide.”
On June 6th, 2010, the federal police attacked workers again, removing the miners and their families from the struck mine. The police then chased the miners into their union hall and tear gassed them.
Straight backs and clinched fists were no defense against the machine guns carried by federal troops, but Chuck Kennedy saw another strength in the miners, noting that as poor and oppressed as Los Mineros were, they were not alone. In the same way that ILWU Local 30 miners had enjoyed the support of the world wide union movement, Los Mineros were not stopping to lick their wounds but were busy forming alliances with the United Steelworkers (USW).
USW District Director Jim Robinson and Organizer Manny Armenta joined with some twenty rank-and-filers from Canada and the United States at this solidarity forum that aimed to build ties and support for the locked- out miners in Mexico. In 2005, Los Mineros and the USW formed a “Strategic Alliance” to improve “communication, collaboration and coordination across our national frontiers.”
At a previous forum held five years ago, both unions agreed to unite their organizations into one North American labor organization under the “values of democracy, equality and solidarity.” When successfully united, this new body will include one million workers from Mexico, Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.
After a long day that involved travelling from Tucson, Arizona to Cananea, Sonora, and back, Chuck Kennedy observed, “every time I’m involved with other unions like the ones that helped us during our lockout in Boron or the Mexican miners who are working here with the USW, I’m more and more convinced that if we were all united we would be one strong force.”