Workers at two steel facilities in Northern Mexico staged a one-day strike Monday in protest of what the country's mining and metalworking union perceives as the Mexican government's anti-union attitude.
The union's 24-hour strike extended from 7 a.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday, affecting Siderurgica del Golfo and its parent company ICH. Both companies are in Mexico's northern state of Tamaulipas.
Union leaders told press that the strike was in response to Mexico's Labor Minister Javier Lozano's recent comments against the union. Lozano recently commented publicly on a long-running strike at Mexican copper mine, Cananea, saying that the mining and metalworkers union was striking to "blackmail" the government and Grupo Mexico, Cananea's owner.
The strife between Mexico's mining and metalworkers union and the Mexican government started when the government refused to recognize the reelection of union leader Napoleon Gomez. Gomez is reportedly now living in Canada to avoid arrest in Mexico on corruption charges.