The Associated Press February 14, 2009
Mexico City - A Mexican judge on Thursday ruled in favor of a miners striking at the country's largest copper mine, allowing them to continue their 6-month strike.
The National Mining and Metal Workers Union considered the ruling a victory and demanded that police now guarding the Cananea mine leave.
The injunction recognizes an appeal against a January labor board ruling that determined the strike was illegal. The case now goes to a federal arbitration board who will decide whether the strike is legal, the Labor Department said in a statement.
The Jan. 11 ruling prompted mine owner Grupo Mexico SAB to seize control of the mine with the help of federal and state police. Police remain at the mine to keep strikers from blocking its entrance.
Grupo Mexico could fire striking workers if arbitration board determines the strike illegal.
Grupo Mexico, a mining and railroad company with operations throughout Mexico, Peru and the United States, plans to appeal the injunction, a process that could take one to three months to be resolved, said Salvador Rocha, the company's attorney.
Work at the Cananea mine, which is now producing 40 to 50 metric tons (44 to 55 U.S. tons) of copper cathode and 70 to 80 metric tons (77 to 88 U.S. tons) of copper concentrate a day, will continue under an earlier court ruling that allowed non-strikers to work but kept the company from dismissing strikers, the company said.
Miners went on strike at Cananea, in the northwestern state of Sonora, and two other mines owned by Grupo Mexico on July 30, seeking a 10 percent pay raise and improved health and safety conditions.
Industry negotiators have offered a 6 percent wage increase.
Grupo Mexico - which is losing an estimated $3 million a day during the stoppage - says it has met union demands to remedy safety and health problems.
Cananea has annual capacity of about 140,000 metric (154,000 U.S. tons) tons of copper concentrate and 50,000 metric tons (55,000 U.S. tons) of cathode.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6XoD9yqTnjU0HYs70KDcfQhVFdQD8UQI21O2
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm