A North American labour dispute panel is examining allegations union members were threatened into joining a competing union.

Isaac Phan Nay 30 Jun 2025 is The Tyee’s labour reporter.
This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

The union for workers at the Camino Rojo mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, is calling for Canada and the United States to resolve allegations its members were threatened into joining a competing union.

Orla Mining, a $3.8-billion company based in Vancouver, owns and operates the gold and silver mine, which sits 580 kilometres northwest of Mexico City.

The union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana — also called “Los Mineros” — represents approximately 250 workers at the mine.

Los Mineros alleges members were denied their right to freely unionize and members were assaulted and received death threats.

“We want to unveil the dark side that exists at the mine, and we want there to be justice for the workers at Camino Rojo,” Daniel Aguirre, secretary for the union’s national executive committee, told The Tyee via a translator.

The allegations have not yet been tested in court, but the union’s case is being reviewed by three authorities: Mexico’s Supreme Court, the Canadian government and an international panel established by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA, which replaced the previous North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020.

The case promises to test the panel as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to tear up the agreement — and underscores a pattern of human rights breaches by Canadian mining companies operating in Mexico.

Orla Mining did not respond to several requests for comment.

Camino Rojo is an open-pit mine in north-central Mexico. Last year, according to Orla Mining’s website, it produced 3,877 kilograms of gold.

The company says it expects its gold production this year to be slightly lower.

“We aim to generate favourable economic and social outcomes, enhancing the overall well-being of our host communities,” reads the company’s website. “Working at Orla means contributing to a safe and healthy work environment.”

The Camino Rojo mine started operating in October 2021, and Los Mineros was certified as the union for mine workers within months.

Aguirre said that at the start of 2024, Los Mineros had started to call for the company to negotiate a profit-sharing agreement between the mine and workers.

Federal law in Mexico requires employers to distribute 10 per cent of pre-tax profits back to employees.

The union threatened to strike to force the company to come to the table, Aguirre said. Then, Aguirre alleges, affiliates of the other union “began to pressure the workers that live in the communities around the mine to disaffiliate, to leave [Los Mineros] and to instead affiliate with another union.”

Workers have also been threatened with violence, and some have been beaten, the union alleges. The union also claims that organized crime figures have gotten involved.

Los Mineros’ allegations have not yet been tested in court.

Aguirre said the mine’s local management pressured employees to disaffiliate with Los Mineros and instead join another union, the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Exploración, Explotación y Beneficio de Minas de la República Mexicana.

According to Aguirre, that union is a “company union” — a term for a labour association heavily influenced by employers, which advocates for a company’s best interests instead of workers. “They’re just there on paper, and there’s no longer actual active union representation, so the protections for the workers tend to go way down,” he said.

Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Exploración, Explotación y Beneficio de Minas de la República Mexicana did not respond to a request for comment.

Ruth López, with Los Mineros, said via a translator that a local union leader, Jaime Pulido León, was beaten and received death threats.

“It’s important to underscore that both the workers at the mine and our shop stewards, our union representatives in that area, were threatened by organized crime,” she said.

She said Pulido León and another organizer have left their homes for fear of further violence.

The Tyee reached out to the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver and Mexico’s department of foreign affairs.

Camila Avendano, a spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate in Toronto, said the department could not comment.

“We do not have any information available that we could provide on the situation,” Avendano said in an email. “Issues of this nature are addressed at the federal level by the competent authorities in Mexico.”

The Mexican Consulate in Vancouver and the Embassy of Mexico in Canada did not respond to requests for comment.

On Nov. 22, 2024, Los Mineros lost a representation vote against the other union.

The vote kicked off a whirlwind of legal disputes across courts, tribunals and panels in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

When the unions headed to the Mexican federal labour tribunal, it ruled against Los Mineros.

A letter from the Mexican federal labour tribunal secretariat says Los Mineros is currently appealing the vote in the Mexican federal Supreme Court.

The labour tribunal in Mexico has filed an injunction that keeps Los Mineros as the recognized union for the Camino Rojo mine while the appeal is investigated, according to a Dec. 12, 2024, claim Los Mineros and United Steelworkers filed with the Canadian National Administrative Office’s labour program.

Labour claim stuck in Canada

The Canadian National Administrative Office and a separate panel based in the United States are both reviewing separate claims from Los Mineros and United Steelworkers, as part of a labour dispute program established by CUSMA.

The program, called the Rapid Response Labour Mechanism, is designed to address labour violations at facilities involved in trade between the three countries, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

It allows for faster enforcement of workers’ rights — especially the right to unionize — and allows governments to penalize non-compliant facilities with tariffs or sanctions.

Paul Bocking, project officer at the Steelworkers Humanity Fund, said the Canadian union helped Los Mineros file the claim here in Canada. The unions claimed that their Los Mineros members at the mine were denied their right to freely associate in pursuit of common workplace goals — or unionize — a right upheld by both Mexican and Canadian federal laws.

“Los Mineros remains concerned by the approach of authorities in Mexico to treat issues of safety and security of the workers at Camino Rojo mine as a problem of generalized violence rather than a result of the specific actions of the Company to use violence, intimidation, and coercion and associations with organized crime to put in place a protection union,” Shaheen Hirani, counsel for the Steelworkers, said in the claim.

The unions are calling on the Canadian government to ensure Orla Mining recognizes Los Mineros as the union for workers and to hold the company accountable for alleged pressure tactics.

Mila Roy, a spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada, said in an email that the Canadian National Administrative Office is reviewing United Steelworkers and Los Mineros’ claim.

A summary of the claim on the federal government’s website confirms Los Mineros alleges workers at the mine have faced assaults and death threats as coercion to join a competing union.

Last January, Orla Mining responded to the National Administrative Office that they are exempt from the Rapid Response Labour Mechanism because gold from Camino Rojo is not traded between Canada and Mexico, according to a second claim document filed June 13.

The Steelworkers’ counsel, Hirani, disputes this. She said in the claim the mine is in fact covered by the Rapid Response Labour Mechanism and should head to a Canadian panel for review, adding that not reviewing the claim would “set a problematic precedent” for Canada’s co-operation in the agreement.

Case being reviewed in the United States

On Dec. 12, 2024, then-U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai announced the United States had requested a separate Rapid Response Labour Mechanism panel review of the labour dispute at the Camino Rojo mine.

According to the announcement, the government of Mexico reviewed Los Mineros’ claim as part of the trade agreement and reported a “limited finding” that workers were denied their right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

“The United States has consulted in good faith with Mexico but has been unable to agree upon a course of remediation,” the trade representative’s office said.

The office of the current U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, did not respond to requests for more details.

The union started this court fight during the previous U.S. administration, and the Rapid Response Labour Mechanism panel has yet to make a decision. That’s worrying to Los Mineros’ Aguirre.

President Trump has at times threatened to tear up CUSMA and at other times has said he plans to renegotiate it — unpredictable statements that Aguirre said throw their case into jeopardy.

“The [Rapid Response Labour Mechanism] came out of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and it’s really only just getting off the ground,” Aguirre said. “We’re afraid the new [U.S.] government will shut down the process.”

On June 10, López and Aguirre came to Vancouver to try to meet with Orla Mining leadership. Until this month, Aguirre had mostly been in contact with managers based in Mexico, he said.

“We weren’t sure the owners here in Vancouver were aware of what was going on in Mexico,” Aguirre said.

They said they were snubbed: the union representatives asked for a meeting with Orla, but, they said, the company ignored their request.

Aguirre is calling for the panels in Canada and the United States to resolve the labour dispute quickly and ensure Los Mineros can continue advocating for the workers at Camino Rojo.

He added he’s worried about an emerging trend of Canada’s mining companies abusing human rights and environmental rights abroad.

In 2021, then-president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized a Toronto-based mining company over a labour dispute with another union.

In 2023, human rights organization MiningWatch Canada presented a report to a House of Commons committee on trade documenting 27 cases of violations of human rights and environmental protection by Canadian mining companies.

“As Mexican workers, we welcome international investment in our country,” Aguirre said. “But only when they respect the rights of the workers.” 

Original Article: https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/06/30/Canadian-Owned-Mine-Mexican-Union-Dirty-Tactics/