Collapse of Dignity (49 page)

In 2010, Fernando Gómez Mont was forced to leave Calderón's
cabinet due to incompetence, like many before him. He sought refuge once again in his law firm, where he continues as a member of the criminal defense team of Germán Feliciano Larrea. His shame will be mirrored by the shame of the others like him in coming years, as the Mexican public comes to understand the deceit and treachery of Presidents Fox and Calderón—presidents who have consistently acted against the interests of the people, always using the justifications that they are advancing freedom and democracy. Having launched their campaign of political persecution against the miners of Mexico, the government officials complicit with Grupo México cannot find a way to end the conflict without revealing their own misdeeds.

Although the PAN routinely accused PRI administrations of cronyism because of a 71-year-long winning streak at the polls, the PAN has proven itself to be even worse: at least the PRI managed to sustain the political and economic stability of Mexico's image abroad, something the PAN has utterly destroyed. Polls reveal that few believe these right-wing lies any longer, as the PAN's reputation with Mexican citizens has declined steadily in recent years, reaching 20 percent nationwide.

We repeatedly called for Felipe Calderón to resolve the problems underlying the three ongoing mining strikes and the overarching conflict between our union and the coalition of mining companies and labor department officials, but the president was stubbornly silent. In 2007, the first year of Calderón's administration, we called at least four meetings to resolve the conflict, lawfully and with respect for the rights of the union's workers and their families. In 2008, we called Calderón three more times, and three more times in 2009. We called twice more in 2010, and have continued to call on him until the present day. We want no part of the compromises Larrea and his “cat” Javier Lozano propose. Were we to accept anything less than a full recognition of the negligence of the labor department and Grupo México, we would tacitly approve of the unlawful actions of the Fox and Calderón administrations. As we have always been, we are willing to resolve the conflict within the law. But we refuse to give them a free pass.

In February 2011, I sent President Calderón a letter and included a copy of a document I drafted over several months with the help of my colleagues. Called “A National Plan for Productivity, Job Generation and Responsible Co-management of the New Mexican Unionism,” the 120-page document presents a vision for twenty-first-century Mexican unionism, and it emphasizes two fundamental and linked concepts: increased productivity and the creation of jobs, and the role a new free and independent trade unionism plays in supporting them. This plan was hand-delivered to Calderón, so I'm absolutely sure he received it. As we've come to expect, Calderón never acknowledged the document, much less responded in a meaningful way.

When on February 19, 2011, a group of journalists questioned Javier Lozano on the statements of the respected Bishop Raúl Vera Lopez of Saltillo, who, like the union, bravely and commendably called for the rescue of the sixty-three bodies at Pasta de Conchos, Lozano adamantly refused, saying: “We will not risk more lives only to rescue bodies.” I responded publicly to Lozano that his statement was offensive and unworthy of someone holding his office. I questioned whether, if it were his father, son, or brother who were left in the bottom of the mine, would he speak in such a derogatory and insolent manner. He did not answer my question.

A few months before, on October 14, 2010, Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, president of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), publicly responded to a question from the press regarding Grupo México's responsibility for the Pasta de Conchos tragedy. He declared that they are in fact responsible and explained that in his expert opinion the owners of the mine and the public officials belonging to the different departments involved in the supervision of the Pasta de Conchos mine are all to be accountable criminally.

Precisely one day after the interview was published in
El Universal
, Marco del Toro presented a complaint before the CNDH arguing that the PGR had stalled the preliminary investigation into those responsible for the mine disaster, and that their actions constituted a violation of human rights. Although our complaint was consistent with the opinion Plascencia has expressed not twenty-four hours before, the CNDH did nothing to pursue the complaint or compel the PGR to continue the investigation it had abruptly halted in 2007.

A return to the starting point of this aggression and a rescue of the bodies of the sixty-three miners abandoned in the bottom of the Pasta de Conchos mine are the key to resolving the entire conflict. Before 2006, we must look back over a century, to 1889, to find an instance of workers' bodies left in a mine in Mexico—every other time since, the bodies have been recovered. But also, as we have repeated all these years, there must be fair, just, and adequate payment for each of the sixty-five families that lost one of their loved ones in the industrial homicide perpetrated by Grupo México and Vicente Fox's labor
department. That includes, as we have explained in various statements and press releases, that minor children have an education up through college that is fully funded by the company; that each family have a dignified and decent household; and that the children and families are guaranteed the right to free health care until the children are adults. And of course we continue our constant refrain: An investigation must be opened to assign responsibility for the deaths and punish those responsible. The impunity cannot continue. No one should be untouchable in Mexico.

For many years the Miners' Union has demanded that Mexico enact a law that penalizes the irresponsibility and criminal negligence of companies. We have talked with various groups of deputies, senators and members of different political parties, without any modification of the law protecting the lives and health of the workers.

For more than seven years, we have sought an end to the mining conflict. How can we resolve an unprecedented siege against a union and its leadership? How can we best end the series of grave offenses committed against the mineworkers, their families, and the entire population of Mexico? There is only one way this conflict can be resolved:

    
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The companies must ensure respect for the safety, freedom, and integrity of all the union's members and their families, and of the union's leaders. They must see us as active collaborators and treat us with respect and dignity. They must acknowledge the value of work and see that it is what builds their own wealth.

    
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The companies must recognize the freely and democratically elected leaders of the union, acknowledging that the workers are the only ones who can decide who will be their leader.

    
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The companies must arrange for a legal negotiation of an end to the strikes currently in progress. They must fully review the proposals and demands of the workers and abide by the commitments they made in the collective bargaining agreements.

    
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There must be restitution for the moral and material damages caused to the workers, their families, and the executive committee of the union through the tragedy at Pasta de Conchos and the other assaults on our members. The companies must withdraw their false accusations that have served as a pretext for persecuting us and do their best to repair the reputations of all they have slandered, including me.

    
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The companies and the government must build a relationship of respect with the union, incorporating a “hands off” policy regarding the organization's internal affairs. The union has never tried to insert its members into companies, nor has it ever attempted to impose itself in decisions about a company's plans for growth or investment. We have always been respectful of the autonomy of the companies who employ our members, and it's that same respect that we demand in return. We do not interfere with them and will not allow them to interfere with us.

Despite the brutal war we have been engaged in, I believe that we can build solutions and come to agreements that will benefit all involved. Only after these conditions are met will we be able to build a solution that complies with the law and with the principles of justice. It is a question of political will, of shedding prejudices, and of their ability to view the worker as a vital part of the production process.

This book is my account of our struggle for justice, for respect, and for dignity. It recounts events that should never have happened and must never happen again, neither in Mexico nor in any other part of the world. These events tested the courage and endurance of an important labor union and its leadership. We have faced a backward business sector and a group of self-serving politicians. Absolute power—and its abuse—have corrupted and destroyed the souls of our opponents. In the first twelve years of the twenty-first century, Mexico has lived with the reality of obsolete and pernicious political practices. There have also been viciously demagogic and clumsy deceits that have distorted
the reality, not just of the country, but also of the governing politicians themselves and many other persons. These are disagreeable experiences that certainly to a greater or lesser degree are repeated in other nations, since no one in the world is exempt from facing these challenges in life. The important thing is to be prepared and decisive in answering, repelling, and triumphing in each action and decision that we take for our own good and that of our families, but also our dignity and desire to overcome and the ongoing realization that we would all have.

I hope that this book leads its readers to the inescapable and absolutely vital conclusion the we must all struggle constantly for a better world, to rescue what is most valuable about humanity—its principles and fundamental values. I hope that the courageous and steadfast miners of our union become an inspiration to workers around the world. I know they have been to me. When I was first elected, my father was the example of a hero I strove for; now, my example and inspiration is the workers themselves (though I still think of my father often, and know that wherever he is, he looks upon our fight with a smile of satisfaction).

Ours has been a true and extreme test of life, of survival and moral triumph, which will inevitably become a victory in fact, over the moral poverty of those who have opposed the changes in history and who have cared only about their own personal interests, which are those of an infamous minority.

I very much hope that this book becomes an important testimony in the history of the worker movement and the social struggle in Mexico, in this stage of neoliberalism that has been imposed on us against our will. Many arrogant public figures have not had the ability to see this case as a reflection of the failure occurring in many other countries, which today is in full decadent flower in the world. In Mexico, unfortunately a few backward and self-centered minorities persist in maintaining this situation against the will of the enormous majority of the population.

Mexico can—and must—change. Mexicans deserve better than this. We must learn that we all have the capacity and real power to transform organizations, unions, governments, corporations, and companies, to change the mentality of individuals. Above all, we must humanize—to
make humane—the politicians and businessmen who flaunt their exploitation of the workers of our country. Our country needs to learn from and follow the model of developed nations, not just on labor issues but also on issues of education, social programs, and economic growth. We cannot, of course, imitate them directly, but we can learn what they have done to make their development possible.

This tragedy and this conflict must serve as an impetus for change. Even after Los Mineros have fully triumphed over our opponents, our struggle will continue. Every one of us has a role to play in the ongoing fight for the dignity and respect of workers, even if all we can do is tell the story of their fight for dignity, respect, and justice.

For a moment, put yourselves in the shoes of a mineworker who each day enters the depths of a pitch-black mine, experiencing intense heat, solitude, insufficient oxygen, choking dust and gases, and the constant threat of imminent danger. Imagine being in these conditions for eight or ten hours, and spending every bit of energy to extract precious minerals from the bowels of the earth—minerals that help your country progress. Imagine looking forward to the moment when you can leave the mine to once again see the light of day and be with your family, who depend on your wages.

In Mexico today, too many miners can't count on exiting their mine alive or on being able to support their family with the pay given them by their employers. We must work together to change the abominable working conditions under which they labor. It has become a disguised form of slavery, through which wealthy company owners reap ever-increasing profits. These conditions are not unique to Mexican miners but extend to working classes throughout the world.

As June Calwood, the outstanding Canadian social activist and writer, said, “If you see an injustice committed, you stop being an observer and you become a participant who cannot help but become part of what is happening in front of you.” We must each stand in opposition to the injustices committed against laborers, no matter what industry or country they appear in. The right to liberty and the right to dignity are rights that belong to everyone, without exception—whether a union member,
a student, a
campesino
, a contractor, an intellectual, a politician, or a businessman. We must become promoters of these rights wherever we see them denied. It is only through this change that we can progress, as individuals, as countries, and as humanity.