Posted: Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Hassan Yussuff, CLC Secretary-Treasurer, headed a recent fact-finding mission to Mexico to investigate that government’s October 10th liquidation of the publicly-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC). Subsequently, the government fired 44,000 electrical workers in contravention of their collective agreement. Delegates in fact-finding mission also included representatives of CEP, USW, CUPE, the AFL-CIO, UWUA, and UE and was organized by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center office in Mexico City.

Mexico’s centre-right government claims the electrical company was inefficient and was losing money. Opponents of the move say the government is seeking to privatize LFC and to break the powerful independent Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), which represented the company's active employees and about 23,000 retirees. The SME has been a militant and democratic labour voice for much of its 95-year history.

The delegation visited various picket and protest sites of SME workers, including two groups on a hunger strike. Yussuff and other labour leaders also met with the SME’s legal and constitutional authorities, the Canadian and US embassies, members of the Mexican Congress, and the vice-minister of labour along with various members of his staff. The delegation held a news conference with local and international media on December 2.

The delegation’s findings show clearly that the Mexican government has violated its own labour laws as well as the Mexican constitution. The CLC and other members of the delegation will work to raise this issue with North American governments through a complaint to the authorities created by the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC),which is the labour side deal to NAFTA. The delegation will also work on generating solidarity for the SME workers and their families.