FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rand Wilson, AFL-CIO (617) 803-0799

Feb. 17, 2011

Massachusetts Labor Leaders Join Global Action on

Workers' Rights in Mexico
Working people mobilize during international week of action

Boston, MA – Working people in Boston and around the world are joining a global union
movement to take part in six days of action calling for trade union rights for Mexican workers.

A delegation of labor leaders met with Boston's acting Mexican Consul General, Amparo
Anguiano on Feb. 17 to voice concerns about the intimidation of workers in Mexico. The event
in Boston -- and others happening across the globe -- coincided with the fifth anniversary of the
deaths of 65 Mexican miners in 2006.

"Today, we are uniting across borders to demand an end to the intimidation and labor rights
violations of workers in Mexico," said Rich Rogers, Executive-Secretary of the Greater Boston
Labor Council. "From Korea and Australia, to South Africa and the United Kingdom, working
families are standing together to call on the Mexican government to improve its enforcement of
labor laws."

Specifically the group asked the Consul General to seek support for:
• Holding employer and government officials accountable for the Pasta de Conchos mine
explosion that killed 65 miners on February 19, 2006;
• Abolishing systemic violations of workers' freedom of association, including employer-
dominated "protection contracts" and interference in union elections;
• Ending the use of force—by the state or private parties—to repress workers' legitimate
demands for democratic unions, better wages and working conditions, and good health and
safety conditions;
• Ending the campaign of political persecution against the Mexican Miners' Union and the
Mexican Electrical Workers' Union.

"There must be an independent investigation of the causes of the explosion," said Peter
Knowlton, President of United Electrical Workers (UE) Northeast Region who convened the
Boston delegation. "The persons responsible should be criminally prosecuted. The government
must pay fair compensation to the families of the victims and recover the 63 bodies that remain
in the mine for proper funerals. Mexico must take action to improve mine health and safety in
compliance with ILO Conventions."

"The government must eliminate the "toma de nota," which requires that the labor authorities
approve the results of union elections before they are given effect," said Rocio Saenz, President
of SEIU Local 615, who was born in Mexico. "The elected leadership of the Mexican Miners'
Union must be immediately recognized. The practice of employer-dominated "protection
contracts" must be ended so that workers can freely choose to be represented by a
union of their choice without fear of intimidation or reprisal."
"The government must immediately withdraw federal police forces from Cananea and from all
workplaces," said Paul Garver, a retired staff member of the International Food Workers. "The
persons responsible for the assassination of Los Mineros members Héctor Álvarez Gómez,
Mario Alberto Castillo Rodríguez, Reynaldo Hernández González, Juventino Flores Salas and
FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) organizer Santiago Rafael Cruz
must be brought to justice."

"The government must release unjustly imprisoned trade union leaders Juan Linares Montufar
and Miguel Márquez Ríos, drop criminal charges against General Secretary Napoleón Gómez
Urrutia and other Mineros leaders, return the funds in the unions' frozen bank accounts, and
cease the political persecution of SNTMMSRM and SME," said Bill Corley, an organizer with
IBEW Local 103 in Boston. "The government must create a new public company to provide
electrical power to the Mexico City region, re-hire the fired workers who are demanding
reinstatement, and recognize the SME as their bargaining representative."

"I used to work at General Electric in Lynn, Massachusetts, but the job I had there moved to
Mexico," said Russ Davis, Director of the community-labor coalition Jobs with Justice. "I want
Mexican workers to have the same rights to organize and participate in unions that we have. The
rising level of violence against union leaders must not be tolerated."

The delegation also included, Hector Giraldo, a union leader from Colombia, Jobs with Justice's
Mary Hewey and AFL-CIO coordinator Rand Wilson.

Pictures from the meeting are available on the Picasa photo sharing website at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/randwilson.aflcio/LaborRightsMeetingWithMexicanConsulInBoston

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