Dozens picket Mexican Consulate in Raleigh
February 19, 2011


BY YUNZHU ZHANG - Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- More than 40 labor activists gathered Friday in front of the Mexican Consulate to call on the Mexican government to respect the rights of workers to unionize.

The demonstration was part of a series of protests organized this week by international union federations at Mexican consulates and embassies throughout the world. The local protesters also spoke about farmworkers in North Carolina, many from Mexico, who they say work and live in poor conditions and have fewer rights than other workers.

"We came together as groups and started trying to bring a light to what's going on in Mexico and also how important it is here in North Carolina," said Justin Flores, spokesman of Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the AFL-CIO.

In a letter to Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, the AFL-CIO says that over the past five years, Mexican workers have experienced "the violations of rights to trade union autonomy, to collective bargaining to strike, to health and safety protections and to stability of employment, all of which are enshrined in national and international law."

The demonstrators also asked the Mexican government to end the use of force by the state or private parties to repress workers' demands for democratic unions, and better wages and working conditions.

This week's demonstrations coincide with the fifth anniversary of a mining accident that killed 65 Mexican miners. According to the activists, 63 of the 65 miners who died at Pasta de Conchos remain buried there, and the Mexican government has failed to investigate the accident.

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