18 FEBRUARY 2011 MEDIA RELEASESteelworkers were front-and-centre at demonstrations in major Canadian cities this week as the USW joined the Global Days of Action for trade union rights in Mexico.
Hundreds of Steelworkers joined other human rights and trade union activists for demonstrations in Toronto (Feb. 14), Montreal and Ottawa (Feb. 15) and Vancouver (Feb. 17).
The USW in Canada and the U.S. added our voices to simultaneous demonstrations outside Mexican embassies and consulates in 30 countries, demanding an end to the violent repression of labour and human rights in Mexico.
Steelworkers and other activists met with Mexican embassy and consular representatives in several countries, calling on Mexico to comply with its own laws and to meet international standards on human and trade union rights.
Napoleon Gomez, exiled leader of Mexico's Los Mineros miners' union, spoke at the Vancouver demonstration to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the explosion at Grupo Mexico's Pasta de Conchos coal mine that killed 65 Los Mineros members.
Mexico's government must recover the bodies of 63 miners still buried, provide adequate compensation for surviving families, and investigate and prosecute those responsible, Gomez said.
Gomez has lived in exile in Canada since 2006 after he denounced the deadly mine explosion as "industrial homicide" and criticized Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government.
Rather than investigate or prosecute those responsible for the tragedy, the Mexican government targeted Gomez and escalated its violent attacks on Los Mineros.
Facing death against himself and his family, as well as trumped-up charges, Gomez came to Canada, with support from the USW. Despite his forced exile, he has been democratically re-elected by Los Mineros members and continues to lead the union.
The global protests this week have succeeded in "drawing international attention to the Mexican government's ever-increasing rights violations," says the Tri-National Solidarity Alliance, a coalition of human rights and labour groups in Mexico, U.S. and Canada.
"The last five years have seen escalating persecution, violence and mass dismissals of Mexican workers and trade unionists. There are ongoing violations of basic rights to form unions, to bargain collectively, to strike and to defend workers' rights without repression."
Support the LabourStart campaign for trade union rights in Mexico
News release on Vancouver demonstration
Photo Gallery of Steelworkers at demonstrations in Ottawa and Toronto
Video of Washington, D.C. demonstration
Fuente : http://www.usw.ca/media/news/releases?id=0619
