Striking Cananea miners fear violence is impending

Feb 22, 2010 — The Arizona Daily Star

Tim Steller

Feb. 20, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The 2 1/2-year-old mine strike in Cananea, Sonora, has reached a crisis point with the potential for violence.

On Feb. 11, a Mexican labor court made the final decision that a strike by about 1,100 miners in Cananea is illegal.

Striking workers have occupied the mine -- Mexico's biggest copper producer -- since July 30, 2007. Now, miners expect that the Mexican government will send in troops or security forces to dislodge them from the entrances to the mine and return the property to the control of its owner, the multinational conglomerate Grupo Mexico.

It is common and legal for striking Mexican workers to occupy their workplace, effectively shutting it down, but the occupation becomes illegal if the courts rule that way.

The Cananea miners "will defend their workplace and their collective-bargaining agreement even with their lives," said Javier Zuniga, a mining union official, by phone Friday from Cananea.

As Zuniga spoke, the miners were in the first of two days of demonstrations, and the sound of a large, chanting crowd nearly drowned out his voice.

Manny Armenta, a United Steelworkers official from Arizona, also was in Cananea, among a group of international observers who have shown up in the town. The Steelworkers, who represent more than 1,000 employees of Tucson-based Asarco LLC -- also a Grupo Mexico-owned company -- have long supported the Cananea miners.

"We're all fearful that there's going to be bloodshed," Armenta said.

If that comes to pass, it would be another outbreak in the town's history of labor conflicts.

The most notorious of those occurred in 1906, when miners went on strike against the mine's American owners. The rebellion and resulting violence helped set off the Mexican Revolution.

In 1989, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sent in troops to seize control of the mine as part of his administration's efforts to privatize it.

The current strike has been costly to Grupo Mexico. The conglomerate estimates its losses from the strike at $1.5 billion, Reuters reported.

With the current, high price of copper, it makes sense Grupo Mexico would try to reopen the Cananea mine, Mexico's biggest producer, said Gary Dillard of Bisbee, who edits Pay Dirt magazine.

"I would assume that they would want to take advantage of that mine. It's a wonderful mine," he said.

Indeed, Dillard said, he met a supplier who was preparing to sell chemicals to the Cananea mine in anticipation of it restarting -- and this happened more than two weeks ago, before the court's ruling, Dillard said.

"A year ago, there was no push on it," Dillard said, referring to the reopening of the mine. "Now it's as good a time as it's going to get."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0014-42260363