Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, June 8, I asked a question in this House concerning Mexican trade unionist Napoleon Gomez. That question followed up on a letter written by the national director of the steelworkers’ union, Ken Neumann, who was rightly concerned about the treatment suffered by the Mexican trade unionist.
The National Union of Mine and Metallurgical Workers of Mexico, also known as Los Mineros, represents men and women who work in the mining and metallurgical industries of Mexico, including the major Mexican steelworks and mining companies. The union represents 250,000 people. In the past few years, under the leadership of Napoleon Gomez, Los Mineros has moved in a more independent and internationalist direction and has struck a more critical posture toward the PAN government and Vicente Fox, who was in office last spring, and the old line ultra-conservative PRI officials and unions.
After the Pasta de Concha mine disaster in which 65 Mexican miners were killed in February, Napoleon Gomez accused the Grupo Mexico mining company of industrial homicide. He further accused the government of negligence and called for an investigation and removal of the Minister of Labour. For all these reasons, the union has become a target of government and employer attacks.
Napoleon Gomez was ousted from his position as general secretary by the Mexican government, contrary to the basic rules governing freedom of association. Mexican labour law gives no authority to the Labour Minister to replace a union officer at the alleged request of the union or under any other circumstances.
In July we learned that an arrest warrant had been issued by Interpol against Napoleon Gomez in relation to accusations from union dissidents that Mr. Gomez had misappropriated a $55 million payment received from Grupo Mexico to settle a 17-year long dispute over privatization of the Cananea mine.
We also learned that it was up to the Canadian government to decide whether to arrest him. The response I was given by the Minister of Labour in June was full of innuendo. What he told me at that time was that he was not taking those allegations lightly and that his department was in the process of gathering information, but that the information was contradictory, depending on the sources. If I understood him correctly, the minister was cautioning me against taking sides with a partisan anti-Vicente Fox faction, Vicente Fox being the outgoing president of Mexico who was then preparing for his election campaign.
The election campaign took place several months ago and I would like to know what information the minister gathered and collected, since we know that this minister can make a request to the Commission for Labor Cooperation, which was created under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, a side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
The Minister of Labour and the Minister of Foreign Affairs could also contact their Mexican counterparts to remind them that, under NAFTA, they must respect workers' rights, including the right to organize.
Basically, I want information. Has the minister in fact gathered any further information and can he share it with the House?