▲ More than 700 miners from Cananea fought for 18 years and after their victory the opportunity to work again is reopened. Around 50 lost their lives in the intervening time.Photo Yazmín Ortega Cortés and Alfredo Domínguez
Andrea Becerril
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, December 19, 2025, p. 4
The national leader of the Mining Union, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, summarizes his feelings about the agreement that ended the strike of more than 18 years at the Cananea mine: “It is a historic achievement of the workers, who always put their dignity first and courageously resisted the abuses and arbitrariness of one of the richest businessmen in the country.”
In interview with The Dayrecognized President Claudia Sheinbaum’s support for the Cananea miners to successfully close “a tough fight of almost two decades in defense of their labor rights, their collective contract and union autonomy.”
It was, he highlights, an unequal battle in which the miners and their families were repressed, stripped of their jobs, of basic services and discriminated against by Germán Larrea’s Grupo México, who in collusion with the government of PAN member Felipe Calderón did everything to try to subdue them.
Faced with the pressure, cruelty and legalistic maneuvers of the owner of the Cananea mine – which he even changed the name after he obtained official approval to break the strike in 2011 – the workers always had the support of the Mining Union and international organizations.
“We never left them alone, we never abandoned them, our participation was intense, they had the necessary economic, legal and moral support from both the National Executive Committee of the Mining Union and the other union sections,” highlighted the Morena deputy.
He adds: “We always trusted that sooner or later this victory would be achieved for the working class, for the mining union movement of our country, because it is a true triumph.” Justice, he said, took time, but it finally arrived.
For this reason, “we are very happy, very satisfied with this agreement, which in addition to benefiting our colleagues from Cananea, highlights the despotic and intransigent attitude of Larrea, who from the beginning tried to put an end to the Mining Union, supported by the PAN and PRI governments.”
He recalled that the Cananea miners went on strike on July 30, 2007 due to lack of safety conditions, in addition to other violations of their collective contract, since the company withheld the union dues of Section 65, to which they are affiliated, and even ignored their local leaders.
Support from exile
He explained that he had to go into exile in Canada in 2006 due to the persecution against him, undertaken by Larrea, with a view to getting rid of a union that demanded safety in the mines and negotiated contracts with decent salaries and benefits.
After the strike broke out, he added, Larrea used politicians and corrupt judges and ministers to annul the movement, without acceding to the miners’ demands. He had the support of Calderón through the then Secretaries of Labor, Javier Lozano, and of the Interior, Fernando Gómez Mont, who before that position worked as a lawyer for Grupo México.
There were four years of litigation, until the Supreme Court endorsed the liquidation of the Section 65 miners’ collective contract and the dismissal of the almost 1,200 miners “due to force majeure”, which only applies to accidents or some other natural disaster or a war, which prevent a company from continuing to operate.
In this illegal way, after evicting the strikers by public force, a month later Larrea reopened the mine, with workers brought from Central America, who lived in barracks, a protection contract from the CTM and the decision not to hire anyone from Cananea.
That same day, Gómez Urrutia added, he cut off the miners’ electricity and water – which they had under a collective contract – and expelled their children from schools.
“More than 700 workers remained on strike, we took the case to international courts and although in these 18 years more than 50 colleagues died, the rest and the widows achieved victory.”
The also leader of the International Confederation of Workers (CIT) highlighted that in addition to the liquidation of the miners, the agreement includes the Social Security that the company took away from them, something they fought for since the beginning of the movement and retirement for those who are already of retirement age.
Likewise, “the opportunity to return to work is reopened, with just over 400 positions for those who are still able to work in the mine, “a demand also felt, because Larrea blacklisted them and their families.”
It was, he concluded, “a brutal resistance by the Cananea miners and their leaders, which made it possible to overcome all obstacles and reach this negotiation. We also hope to resolve the other two strikes, in the mines of Taxco, in Guerrero, and Sombrerete, Zacatecas.”
