After 53 days of blocking part of the facilities of the unit in Mexico of the largest private steel company in the world, ArcelorMittal, the Mining Union asked the judge to expand the scope of the request for protection. The judge accepted and requested “legal intervention from the Agent of the Federal Public Ministry,” according to the court's resolutions, seen by SteelOrbis.
After two courts declared unacceptable the call for a strike by the Mining Union of Congressman Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the company began the process to dismiss more than 1,200 workers for the alleged violation of the Federal Labor Law of Mexico.
The courts rejected the call for a strike, because according to ArcelorMittal, due to a claim for an alleged poor distribution of profits to the workers, the blockade of facilities began on May 24 with red-and-black flags. Five days after the initial blockade, the strike call was processed. For this reason, the seizure of facilities is considered illegal.
With some legal setbacks for the Mining Union, so far, the only labor instance will be held until August 7, in a constitutional hearing it will be resolved whether the collective dismissal of workers proceeds. It is for that hearing that the union requested to expand the scope.
In a recent interview, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia said that the case will be taken to the highest court in Mexico, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), which is why the blockade could extend much beyond the current 76 days. on August 7.
During the 53 days of blockage, ArcelorMittal has lost a production of 349,000 metric tons (mt) of billet and more than 87,000 tons of rebar.