The National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (Spanish: Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana, or SNTMMSRM) is a union of coal and copper miners, as well as iron and steel workers, in Mexico. It was founded in 1934, and in 1936 it became an affiliate of the newly formed Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).
The SNTMMSRM's leaders were initially staunch allies of Vicente Lombardo Toledano, the head of the CTM. In 1949, when Lombardo Toledano left the CTM to form the rival General Union of Workers and Campesinos (UGOCM) and the Popular Party, the SNTMMSRM joined these new organizations. The unions of railroad workers (STFRM) and oil workers (STPRM) also supported Lombardo Toledano.
The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the CTM saw Lombardo Toledano and these unions as a threat, and in the 1950 the government installed charros (corrupt labor bosses) in the leadership of the SNTMMSRM. The most important of these charros was Napoleón Gómez Sada, who was the president of the SNTMMSRM for decades until he was replaced by his son in 2001.
The pro-government SNTMMSRM leaders faced little opposition from the miners' locals (except for Local 65 in Cananea, Sonora). However, a strong reform campaign was initiated in the 1970s and 1980s by steelworkers' locals.
The current leader of the SNTMMSRM is Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, son of the long-time union president. Gómez Urrutia is today living in exile in Canada, where he fled after being accused of fraud by Mexican authorities. Deemed innocent by his supporters and re-elected to a six-year term in May 2008, Gómez Urrutia has organized the union remotely from Vancouver, British Columbia, since 2006."
Read more about National Union Of Mine And Metal Workers Of The Mexican Republic: Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words national, union, metal, workers, mexican and/or republic:
“Public speaking is done in the public tongue, the national or tribal language; and the language of our tribe is the men’s language. Of course women learn it. We’re not dumb. If you can tell Margaret Thatcher from Ronald Reagan, or Indira Gandhi from General Somoza, by anything they say, tell me how. This is a man’s world, so it talks a man’s language.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
“The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order, of union with God, the principle of all perfection.”
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)
“There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of ... every industrial area in the whole country.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The germ of violence is laid bare in the child abuser by the sheer accident of his individual experience ... in a word, to a greater degree than we like to admit, we are all potential child abusers.”
—F. Gonzalez-Crussi, Mexican professor of pathology, author. “Reflections on Child Abuse,” Notes of an Anatomist (1985)
“Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)