Grupo México rejects claims of labor rights violations at San Martín mine

Grupo México maintains that there are no violations of employees' labor rights at its San Martín lead, zinc and copper mine in Zacatecas state, in response to a US request for Mexico to review alleged infringements.

The Office of the US Trade Representative announced on Friday that it has asked Mexico to review the case, the 11th such request for companies operating in the Latin American country under the rapid response labor mechanism of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The US request followed a complaint from Mexico’s national union of mining, metallurgical, iron and steel, and similar workers, which is led by senator Napoléon Gómez Urrutia, and which was backed by two US labor organizations, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the United Steelworkers.

"The San Martín mine operates in Zacatecas based on the free decision of the majority of its workers," Grupo México said in a statement. The mine is run by the group's subsidiary Industrial Minera México (IMMSA).

The union's request to invoke the USMCA's rapid response labor mechanism alleges that Grupo México has resumed operations at the San Martín mine despite an ongoing strike, and has engaged in collective bargaining with a coalition of workers, despite the fact that Gómez's union has the right to represent workers for the purposes of collective bargaining.

According to the company, the strike that kept the mine closed for more than a decade was lifted after a workers' meeting in 2018, in which they decided to "resign from the representation of the union led by Gómez Urrutia, end the strike and re-assume their jobs immediately."

Grupo México explained that, after the strike was lifted, the San Martín mining unit has received investments of more than US$105mn, produces more than 1.25Mt of material for processing each year and generates about 1,300 jobs.

"Industrial Minera México will be attentive to any request for information formulated by the Mexican authorities regarding the response they decide to make to this request, within the framework of the USMCA trade agreement," the statement added.