The Guardian 7 June, 2006
Call for justice for union leader
OTTAWA: United Steelworkers’ National Director Ken Neumann said last week that rumours circulating in Mexico that union leader Napoleon Gomez Urrutia is seeking political asylum in Canada are false and diverting attention away from the issue of seeking justice and reinstatement for Gomez as the democratically-elected leader of the National Union of Mine and Metallurgical Workers of the Mexican Republic (known as Los Mineros).
"Mr. Gomez is a guest of the United Steelworkers in Canada", said Neumann. "He is meeting with representatives of the opposition parties in Ottawa to update Canadian politicians about the war of persecution being waged by the Mexican government and to seek support for his reinstatement."
Neumann added that Canadian Steelworkers have already sent messages to representatives of the Mexican Government in Canada that Canadians are appalled by the actions the government has taken against Gomez, who is still supported by his membership.
"The Mexican Government is responsible for his removal from office and must ensure that he is re-instated, not forced to seek asylum in some other country."
Neumann said the only "crime" committed by Gomez is that he spoke out to protect his membership and to demand an investigation into the mine disaster at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine, which killed 65 workers and left their families devastated.
"Our union in Canada worked for more than a decade to bring about legislation that holds corporations, their directors and executives criminally accountable for putting workers lives at risk", he said. "The basis for that lengthy lobbying effort was the Westray mine explosion that took 26 lives in 1992. No one in our union was ever threatened with removal from office for speaking out. Mexican workers and their representatives deserve no less for defending their rights.
"We believe the government of Mexico must prove that it believes in democracy and not state-sponsored intimidation and bullying."
Opposition parties are being asked to support the following actions:
That the Mexican Government restore Napoleon Gomez to his democratically-elected position of General Secretary of Los Mineros;
That the Mexican Government uphold its own labour laws that give unions broad authority to regulate their internal affairs in accordance with their constitution;
That the Mexican Government uphold Article 3 of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 87 governing worker and employer organisations and their relationship to national governments, a convention which is incorporated into Mexican labour law at a level below that of the Constitution but above federal labour law;
That the Mexican Government honour the 65 miners killed at work by undertaking a complete investigation into the explosion at the Pasta de Conchos mine.