Mexico: Workers protesting against Minera Penmont's refusal to pay 10% of the profits allegedly owed to 1,800 of them are removed by the police in Sonora

"Sonora police intervene to remove blockaders from Fresnillo’s La Herradura mine",

 13 May 2023

...Minera Penmont, a subsidiary of Fresnillo announced that the Sonora police removed a number of blockades installed at different entry points of the company’s La Herradura operation located in northwestern Mexico.

...[B]lockaders...had been protesting for 14 days...

The conflict started on April 27, 2023, when some employees protested against the company’s refusal to pay 10% of the profits that – they say – is owed to 1,800 workers. They were also defending their right to freedom of association.

In a communiqué, Minera Penmont said that some people that don’t even work for the company were part of the group that launched the “illegal strike action” and that all of them refused to go through the regular institutional channels to negotiate a solution to the conflict.

“The company initiated legal actions against those responsible for this work stoppage that has put the mining operation, social stability and the local economy at risk,” the media statement reads.

Fresnillo’s subsidiary noted that management has, at all times, responded to workers’ demands within the existing legal framework, in compliance with the contract it signed with the FRENTE Mining and Metallurgical National Union and without interfering with the decisions made by the union during its general meetings, which have been endorsed by the Mexican labour authorities...