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 Business News | February 2007 
Mexico Miners Plan Strike Monday to Mark Explosion
 Reuters
| | Grupo Mexico has managed to recover only two bodies since last year's pre-dawn explosion of methane gas and coal dust tore through the mine in Mexico's northern state of Coahuila, trapping the 65 night shift workers, some of them almost 1.5 miles (2.5 km) underground. |
Mexican mine workers will stage a one-day strike next Monday to mark the first anniversary of a coal mine explosion that killed 65 workers, the union said this week.
The union said workers across the country would walk off the job for 24 hours to pressure the government to punish Grupo Mexico, the owner of the Pasta de Conchos coal mine, which suffered an explosion Feb. 19, 2006.
“Grupo Mexico is a company with no ethics or social responsibility that has shown absolute contempt for the lives of its workers,” the union said in a statement.
Grupo Mexico has managed to recover only two bodies since last year's pre-dawn explosion of methane gas and coal dust tore through the mine in Mexico's northern state of Coahuila, trapping the 65 night shift workers, some of them almost 1.5 miles (2.5 km) underground.
Union leaders say Grupo Mexico ignored safety concerns.
The company has denied negligence.
The company says it has spent millions of dollars trying to reach the remains of the men, but that conditions in the collapsed mine have made progress very slow.
The union said the strike would involve all its members, which it says number 200,000. However, a leadership dispute has divided the union into two factions and it was not clear how many workers would take part.
Last year the workers organized widespread one-day strikes and several longer stoppages in support of ousted union leader Napoleon Gomez.
Gomez, accused of corruption by some workers and mining firms, was ousted in what many workers say were suspicious circumstances. He now lives in Canada, but still governs the part of the union organizing Monday's strike.
The attorney general for the state of Coahuila has said he plans to issue warrants for the arrest of Grupo Mexico executives and Labor Ministry officials in connection with the explosion.
Pasta de Conchos is located 75 miles (120 km) from Eagle Pass, Texas. |
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