Some 125 Steelworkers and 15 members of UNITE the Union this month traveled to Mexico to demonstrate global solidarity with Los Mineros, the Mexican mine and steelworkers union.
The Steelworkers, who represented every USW District across the U.S. and Canada, were joined by UNITE members from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The group met with members of Los Mineros as they marked the tenth anniversary of the murder of two Mineros members during a strike.
USW Directors Mike Millsap from District 7, Bob LaVenture from District 12, John Shinn from District 4 and Emil Ramirez from District 11 led the Steelworkers as they joined thousands of representatives of Mineros locals across the country, including Mineros from ArcelorMittal plants.
The group held a rally and march through the Mexican city of Lázaro Cárdenas on April 20, followed by a Mass and honor guard at the monument to the two fallen Mineros outside the plant gate.
The march was preceded by workshops organized jointly by the Mineros and District 7 on health and safety and on the history of solidarity between Los Mineros, the USW and UNITE. Also joining the activities were the 30 participants in the Workers Uniting 'Building Power Internationally' course in Mexico City April 13-17.
Addressing the rally, Mineros President and General Secretary Napoleón Gómez Urrutia highlighted recent Mineros victories, including a nine-day strike against ArcelorMittal from March 4-13 and a recent election win at the Hercules mine owned by the AHMSA steel company.
But Gómez warned that corruption and impunity constantly threaten democratic unions. Ten years after the murder of Mineros members Hector Alvarez Gómez and Mario Alberto Castillo Rodríguez by federal and state police, no one has been held accountable for the crime.
The rally also heard greetings from Directors Millsap, LaVenture, Shinn and Ramirez and from Dominic Bradbury, a young worker from the UK speaking on behalf of UNITE.
