A mine collapse, a worker uprising, political persecution, corporate intrigue, the leading of a worker’s movement from exile: to the casual observer, the story may read like an old world, Borgia-era tale of violence and secrecy. What it is, however, is a true account of the modern Mexican labor movement – specifically, the struggle of Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and Los Mineros, the country’s largest mine, steel and metalworkers union.

Background

Following the 2001 election of Gomez to lead the union, and the 2006 collapse of the Pasta de Conchos mine which claimed the lives of 65 miners, a series of legal battles ensued. Ultimately, Gomez was forced into exile and what followed became one of North America's most epic labor rights struggles in decades.

Throughout the early part of the 20th century, following Mexico’s 1910 Revolution, a sweeping set of land reforms went into effect wresting control of the nation’s mineral resources and infrastructure from private, European hands and transferring it to the Mexican public. By the 1950s, a mandatory 51% of mining industry capital and ownership was public; authorities granted only limited and tightly controlled private cooperative concessions. Despite a series of challenges over export and industrial growth, the mining industry maintained a strong, robust place in the country’s economy.

Also during this time, trade and labor unionism flourished. Through a series of programs designed to attract foreign investment while maintaining firm public control over industry, the Mexican economy balanced power and prosperity by maintaining relationships with private industry along with legions of well organized Mexican workers. In the 1930’s, as Mexico moved to nationalize larger industries like rail and petroleum, the mining and mineral sectors largely remained in public-private partnerships.

The trends continued through much of the century, and it wasn't until globalization hit Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s – climaxing with the 1993 signing of NAFTA into law – that neoliberal policies and strengthened corporate influence began to aggressively carve up and privatize Mexico’s mining industry and its infrastructure. As efforts to promote “top down” corporate-controlled business models expanded (largely due to pressures by American corporate partners, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) tensions with Mexican labor organizations like Los Mineros increased.

The crisis fell directly onto the shoulders of union leaders like Napoleon Gomez Sada (Gomez Urrutia's father), who stridently opposed the privatization of Mexican assets. Upon Gomez Sada's death in 2001, the Mineros union, seeing the need to maintain strong-arm negotiating tactics against the corporations, elected Gomez’s son to take his place. Within five years of his election, Gomez Urrutia would become the focal point – and literal target – of powerful corporate interests until matters came to a head with the 2006 collapse of the Pasta de Conchos mine.

The Pasta de Conchos Disaster

Unlike the 2010 Chilean mine collapse, in which 33 miners were dramatically rescued following an international outpouring of support, the 2006 disaster in Mexico received relatively little in the way of international media. As a result, the tragic event attracted little official response either from company or government powers on behalf of the 65 victims. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the collapse, rather than rush to the aid of the trapped workers, Grupo México, the owner of the mine, in coordination with Mexican authorities cordoned off the area. They used paid thugs and government forces to break up demonstrations and keep union members and miners' families at bay. Five days after the explosion, they called off all search and rescue efforts – leaving the dozens of miners' undiscovered bodies buried in the mine, where they remain to this day.

Grupo México, the nation's largest mining firm, had notoriously poor health and safety standards. Many suspect that sparks from exposed wires within the mine, coupled with poor ventilation, caused the explosion and the mine to cave in. Reports from miners and union officials about conditions in the Pasta de Conchos mine, where workers often toiled for as little as $1 an hour, made repeated reference to primitive and outdated safety equipment, faulty electrical wiring, and a cloudy, dusty environment where gasses built up without appropriate ventilation allowing them to escape.

Prior to the mine's collapse, workers at Pasta de Conchos had gone on strike 14 times to protest the corporation's health and safety violations – demonstrations overlooked or entirely unnoticed by state and federal authorities.

Worker Safety vs. Corporate Profits

During a series of recent discussions with the exiled Gomez, the union president told Occupy.com that repeated calls on both the company and government to better enforce worker safety standards have been ignored.

"We have been fighting and trying to introduce a bill to penalize, or [bring] criminal charges based on the criminal negligence of the companies, and we haven't been able to [get] the Congress or the Senate of Mexico to approve a bill like that," said Gomez.

"The conditions that prevail in the mines are really very difficult, and after Pasta de Conchos more than 200 miners have died in different accidents in Mexico. So the insecurity still prevails and it’s [a result of] what I call corporate greed and corruption that allows this to happen, instead of respecting the life and safety of the workers and their families."

Pressure Mounts

Prior to the mine collapse, Gomez had found his role as union president largely consumed with confronting the political and media influence of Grupo México and it’s executive leadership. Now, suddenly he found himself the target of an intense, prolonged campaign of slander and frivolous legal suits pushed by the company and its allies within the administration of then-President Vicente Fox.

After the mine’s collapse, many suspected that Grupo México and the government ignored the mining union's calls to renew the rescue effort because entering the mine could ultimately reveal the cause of the disaster. Fearing charges of "industrial homicide," Grupo México instead used its vast financial resources and government connections to run a smear operation against Los Mineros's leadership.

The company hired more thugs to ransack the union offices and disrupt strikes. Grupo México also tried to invalidate the election of Gomez at the head of Los Mineros and aimed to replace him with a hand-picked, pro-company replacement. Further attempts to undermine union power came at the hands of new, so-called “independent” unions, which were little more than company satellites created for the express purpose of furthering corporate control of the narrative and continuing to operate business as usual.

A Union Leader In Exile

With anti-worker attacks ramping up on a daily basis, Gomez took a trip that same year to the United States where he met with the heads of the United Steel Workers and the AFL-CIO. At the same time, a series of trumped-up embezzlement and fraud charges were filed on behalf of Grupo México and its anti-union associates that attempted to destroy Gomez's credibility and imprison him before he could expose further truths about the corporation's legal violations.

As a result, and to avoid arrest and seizure of his family's assets upon his return to Mexico, Gomez took refuge in Vancouver where he stayed for the next eight years. He continued to lead Los Mineros from abroad, successfully winning reelection to his position in absentia six times.

Gomez also wrote and published a memoir, “Collapse Of Dignity,” which chronicled both his history with the union and the disaster at Pasta de Conchos, as well as the subsequent decade of struggle and persecution. Mexican authorities, working at the behest of Grupo México, have issued arrest warrants through Interpol, pitting pro-union Canadian authorities against Mexican and even American powers that sought to return Gomez to Mexico for trial.

Ironically, it was the extradition treaty negotiated between Canada and Mexico – parallel to the NAFTA trade agreements years earlier – that allowed Canada to refuse Mexico’s extradition requests, citing protections granted to people fleeing political persecution. After eight years, through his written work, social media and other digital communications with union officials and allies, Gomez has continued to lead Los Mineros and to speak more broadly on behalf of the rights of Mexican workers.

Living with permanent resident status in Canada, and having gotten all outstanding charges and warrants against him effectively dropped, Gomez has expressed eagerness to return to Mexico and resume work with the union. Finally, in February he announced plans to return and join USW and Los Mineros colleagues for an upcoming workers' NAFTA summit to address issues like the highly contentious Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Today, the battle rages on with no clear winner. Gomez puts it: "As my father used to say, there is not a gold mine, [not even] the richest gold mine, that can pay for the life of a worker."