A Mexican company plans to 4.2 billion U.S. dollars to re-start production to invest in the country’s largest copper mine, which was closed for three years by a labor dispute, the labor secretary said.
Police seized control of the Cananea mine in northern Sonora State of striking workers Sunday, ending a strike that owner Grupo Mexico said to have caused $ 3,000,000 per day losses since the beginning 7/30/2007.
Strikers demanded safer working conditions, but a federal labor arbitration last year gave the company the green light to dismiss striking workers. More than 1,000 workers joined the strike initially, but only a few dozen remained when authorities removed them this weekend.
On Tuesday, Labor Secretary Javier Lozano Grupo Mexico said it will invest 4.2 billion U.S. dollars over the next five years to increase production at the mine to 460,000 tonnes. He said the mine had a capacity of 190,000 tonnes for the strike.
The strike was a reaction to the deaths of 65 miners in February 2006 after an underground explosion in a coal mine owned by Grupo Mexico also, mining and a railroad with operations in Mexico, Peru and the United States.
But Grupo Mexico and government officials have suggested the real issue was support for mining union leader Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, who moved to Canada after being accused of embezzlement of $ 55,000,000.
The government has offered the striking miners’ severance pay six times greater than required by law, but Urrutia said Tuesday the workers will not accept it.
“We will continue our struggle,” Urrutia said in an interview with MVS Radio. “The workers have decided they will no liquidation. They will not give away their work.”
source:businessweek
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