Jared Laureles and Alexia Villaseñor
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, December 24, 2025, p. 4
Three years after Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) closed operations, workers at the steel plant demanded that the federal government formalize a “justice plan” to resolve the conflict, which has caused a “social crisis” due to the prolonged inactivity of this strategic company for the region of Monclova, Coahuila.
Desperate after a profound economic and health deterioration that impacts their families, yesterday a group of workers demonstrated at the steel company’s offices located on the first floor. There, they also reported that they have faced emotional and psychological consequences, as well as chronic illnesses.
Julián Torres Ávalos, president of the AHMSA Workers’ Labor Defense Group, insisted on the request for the direct intervention of President Claudia Sheinbaum so that the sale of the steel company, which stopped producing steel on December 22, 2022, can be completed.
He accused the delay faced by the bankruptcy process, declared more than a year ago, since the trustee Víctor Manuel Aguilera has sent “incomplete” information to the governing judge of the commercial bankruptcy, who must then request that the deficiencies be resolved.
The reason for the demonstration “was to ask the President to intervene directly, because the judicial process is going very slow, there are many obstacles, and it is in their best interest, the trustee and his staff, who continue to collect million-dollar sums,” he claimed in an interview.
Torres Ávalos requested that the government authorize a budget item to resolve the owed wages and severance pay to workers, in accordance with their collective contract. The resources “invested in labor liabilities,” he specified, may be returned once the company is sold to individuals.
In addition, he denounced that three years ago the businessman Alonso Ancira brought down “a giant, which is dying and needs a hand”: Altos Hornos, which became the largest steel producer in the country and the economic engine of Monclova.
“We are not at this meeting to celebrate, but to regret the damage that the paralysis of the company brought and that caused incalculable damage to more than 17 thousand families, at the state level, central, coal and desert regions,” he insisted.
He pointed out that the disaster “was caused by Ancira, who took all the settlements, it was a robbery against the workers.”
During the demonstration at AHMSA, the workers expressed that they live in uncertainty due to the long wait during which at least 44 of their colleagues have lost their lives.
