National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic
The National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic 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.
The SNTMMSSRM´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 and the Popular Party, the SNTMMSRM joined these new organizations. The unions of railroad workers and oil workers also supported Lombardo Toledano.
The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and the CTM saw Lombardo Toledano and these unions as a threat, and in the 1950 the government installed charros in the leadership of the SNTMMSSRM. The most important of these charros was Napoleón Gómez Sada, who was the president of the SNTMMSSRM for decades until he was replaced by his son in 2001.
The pro-government SNTMMSSRM leaders faced little opposition from the miners' locals. However, a strong reform campaign was initiated in the 1970s and 1980s by steelworkers' locals.
The current leader of the SNTMMSSRM 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."To head his criminal defense, Gómez Urrutia chose prominent penal lawyer Marco Antonio del Toro Carazo who is also defending labor leader Elba Esther Gordillo.
