Support the demonstration at the Mexican Embassy – 16 St. George Street, London, W1S 1FD at 13hrs on Thursday 17th February.
The demonstration is called as part of the Global Union Federations’ (UNI, IMF, ICEM, ITF) week of actions to protest against the continuing violation of labour rights in Mexico.
In particular the event is to draw attention to the 5th anniversary of the explosion at the Pasta De Conchos mine on 19th February 2006, in which 65 miners were killed. Rather than hold the company to account the Mexican government continues to persecute the miners and electrical workers unions, such that the leader of ‘Los Mineros’ Napoleon Gomez is now in forced exile in Canada, while some of his colleagues remain in jail. More recently leaders of the North American Steelworkers union – the USW – were arrested when trying to vist colleagues from the Miners union.
It is vitally important that we increase the pressure on the Mexican Government (which remains a key part of the NAFTA agreement) to refrain from interfering in union elections and to respect basic labour rights to organise and bargain collectively.