Widows Lawsuit Seeks Damages Over Disaster That Killed 65 Mexican Miners Four Years Ago Today

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Families of deceased coal miners killed four years ago in an explosion at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila, Mexico, today filed suit in U.S. federal court in Arizona seeking damages from Grupo Mexico Inc. and related companies.

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The lawsuit was filed by the United Steelworkers union in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on behalf of three widows whose husbands were among 65 coal miners killed in the Mexican disaster.

The miners were trapped underground on Feb. 19, 2006 when a powerful methane explosion rocked the mine in the early morning hours of an overnight shift.

Only two bodies were recovered in the immediate aftermath of the disaster before Grupo Mexico called off the search, infuriating family members unable to bury their dead.

The lawsuit alleges Grupo Mexico and the other corporate defendants failed and refused to take the necessary steps to prevent the disaster even though they were informed of unsafe conditions by the Mexican government and the miners themselves.

The defendants also include Americas Mining Corp., wholly-owned by Grupo Mexico and based in Phoenix; and Southern Copper Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Americas Mining, also based in Phoenix.

Citing the blatant and reckless disregard for the lives of the Pasta de Conchos miners, the lawsuit alleges the defendants are liable under both federal and state law for damages.

The plaintiffs do not have a proper forum to bring the case in Mexico and fear possible retaliation, even murder, from armed groups in Mexico, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiffs do not have access to a functioning legal system in Mexico to raise their complaints. To the extent the legal system functions, the lawsuit alleges it is "held captive" by powerful economic interests such as Grupo Mexico.

Since the disaster, numerous attempts by plaintiffs and Los Mineros, the union representing the Mexican miners, the miners themselves and the Catholic Church to try to force the Mexican government to redress the problems which led to the mine disaster have failed.

Similarly, attempts by the same groups to force the government to compel Grupo Mexico and its related firms to recover the bodies of the deceased miners from the ruins of the mine also failed.

Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government have waged a four-year campaign of repression and abuse of power against Los Mineros -- Mexico's strongest independent union.

In another situation involving Los Mineros, the USW and other labor unions around the world fear Mexico's government may use deadly force against striking Mexican miner workers at Grupo Mexico's Cananea copper mine in the state of Sonora.

Without allowing the union to present evidence, a Mexican court recently ruled that 1,200 workers at Cananea are to be dismissed, a strike they initiated in July 2007 terminated and the union's collective bargaining agreement with Grupo Mexico be extinguished.

Organized labor and other groups in several countries are asking their governments to refrain from military and police action against the Cananea miners, who are members of Los Mineros.

"The United Steelworkers fears that there could be blood shed if this occurs,'' USW National Director for Canada Ken Neumann said in a letter delivered to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week on Feb. 17.

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)