{"id":3146,"date":"2015-02-27T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T14:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3146"},"modified":"2015-02-27T14:39:08","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T14:39:08","slug":"mexican-miners-fight-workers-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3146","title":{"rendered":"Mexican miners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fight for workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although trade unions at home have undergone repeated attacks from the government in recent years, in Mexico, involvement in a trade union can get jailed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or even killed.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Mexican government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appalling treatment of workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights is to be highlighted as the leader of the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s miners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 union visits the UK, coinciding with Mexican president Pe\u0102\u00b1a Nieto\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s state visit.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnder Nieto\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s administration, the union, Los Mineros, has seen many of its officials wrongly imprisoned and four union members murdered since 2006.<\/p>\n

 
\nLos Mineros president Napoleon Gomez, who will meet MPs at the House of Commons on March 2, has headed the union in exile in Canada for almost a decade, following repeated death threats.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Mexican government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relentless prosecution of the union and its leader came to a head when it sent an application to obtain a red notice from Interpol while Gomez was in Canada, which was twice rejected as politically motivated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite general secretary Len McCluskey condemned the way in which the Mexican miners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 union has been the victim of vicious government attacks and hoped that Gomez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s visit to the UK could help raise awareness of Mexican unions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plight.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNapoleon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case and the rights of Mexican workers are not very well known,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe hope his visit will raise the profile of what is happening in Mexico, where the rights of workers are being trampled on.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMcCluskey went on to highlight what Los Mineros had accomplished, even in the face of a hostile political climate.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe union has organised thousands of new workers in mining and manufacturing industries, challenging Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s corrupt system of employer-dominated \u00e2\u20ac\u0098protection unions,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBecause these actions threatened Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s export-driven, low-wage model, the Mexican government has targeted Los Mineros in a massive campaign of persecution, including refusing to recognise union election results.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIndeed, the success of Los Mineros may reveal just why the government has targeted this union in particular \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while average annual wage increases in Mexico amount to four per cent, Los Mineros has won wage increases averaging more than double that, at over eight per cent over the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

 
\nMcCluskey pledged support for Los Mineros and their struggles.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite stands in solidarity with our Mexican colleagues and calls on the British government to put pressure on president Nieto to clean up his government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s act and start to respect the employment rights of its own citizens,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\nMexican president Pe\u0102\u00b1a Nieto is scheduled to visit the UK between March 3 and 5, while union leader Napoleon Gomez will visit from March 1 through 8.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Los Mineros has built strong ties of solidarity with unions around the world. In 2005, it formed a strategic alliance with the United Steelworkers, which joined with Unite in 2008 to form Workers Uniting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nTo find out more about Los Mineros\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 struggles , read Napoleon Gomez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book, The Collapse of Dignity.<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although trade unions at home have undergone repeated attacks from the government in recent years, in Mexico, involvement in a trade union can get jailed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or even killed.   The Mexican government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appalling treatment of workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights is to be highlighted as the leader of the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s miners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 union visits the UK, coinciding with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[39],"wps_subtitle":"Unite supports struggle of Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Los Mineros union ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3148,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions\/3148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}