Mineros’ Leader Thanks Sheinbaum for Support Resolving Cananea Strike

ByMexico Solidarity

This article originally appeared in the December 26, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. After the agreement ending the more than 18-year strike in Cananea, Sonora, was formalized this week, the national leader of the National Mining Union, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, thanked President Claudia Sheinbaum for her support and willingness to “make the end of this difficult conflict a reality.”

He also acknowledged the “good disposition,” the attention and the openness to dialogue of the Secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, and the head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Marath Bolaños, as well as the commitment “to just causes” of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Without a doubt, this triumphant resolution would not have been possible with past governments, but times have changed and we will not allow impunity and injustice,” Gómez Urrutia emphasized.

In a statement, he said that the miners of the union he leads are “very happy about the triumphant resolution that puts an end to the legitimate strike,” which broke out in July 2007 due to serious failures in safety and hygiene, as well as violations of their collective bargaining agreement.

He recalled that for almost two decades, the miners of section 65 of Cananea faced a “cruel and hard battle against Grupo México for the abuses and systematic violations” of their labor rights.

Last Tuesday in Sonora, the Secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, announced the creation of a fund of more than 2.222 billion pesos that will finance the agreement, signed the day before, which ended the Cananea strike and will also allow for compensation for the damage caused by the spill of toxic waste in the Sonora River.

President Sheinbaum’s government secured a contribution of 70.14 percent of those resources from the Grupo México consortium, equivalent to 1.5 billion pesos.

The agreement – ​​which falls within the framework of the Justice Plan for Cananea – includes settlement in accordance with the original collective agreement and access to social security and the pension system for the benefit of 650 workers and their families, as well as the widows of another 53 miners who lost their lives during this conflict.

It also includes the opening of 400 positions at the Cananea mine for workers who wish to return to work.

Gómez Urrutia emphasized, in an interview with La Jornada, that two other strikes remain in effect for more than 18 years without being resolved: the one in Taxco, Guerrero, and the one in Sombrerete, Zacatecas.