National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic explained

SNTMMSSRM
Location Country:	Mexico
Affiliation:	CTM United Steelworkers, IndustriALL Global Union
Full Name:	National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic
Native Name:	Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana
Founded:	1934
Key People:	Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, President and General Secretary

The National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic (Spanish; Castilian: Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana, or SNTMMSSRM) 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 (CTM).

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 (UGOCM) and the Popular Party, the SNTMMSRM joined these new organizations. The unions of railroad workers (STFRM) and oil workers (STPRM) also supported Lombardo Toledano.

The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the CTM saw Lombardo Toledano and these unions as a threat, and in the 1950 the government installed charros (corrupt labor bosses) 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 (except for Local 65 in Cananea, Sonora). 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, a disgraced^[1] union leader accused of having embezzled US$55 million that was supposed to be used to pay workers' severance payments at the Mexicana de Cananea mining company and that ended up being diverted^[2] by Gómez Urrutia, who later fled to Canada to avoid arrest. In April 2021, Gómez Urrutia was sentenced^[3] to return the US$55 million. He is currently free from jail thanks to the immunity he benefits from as a senator.

Further reading

• Raul Trejo Delarbe and Anibal Yanez, "The Mexican Labor Movement: 1917-1975," Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Winter, 1976), 133-153.
• Ian Roxborough and Ilan Izberg, "Union Locals in Mexico: The 'New Unionism' in Steel and Automobiles," Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1 (May 1983), 119-126.
• Adrian A. Bantjes, As If Jesus Walked on Earth: Cardenismo, Sonora, and the Mexican Revolution (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998).
• Michael Snodgrass, Deference and Defiance in Monterrey: Workers, Paternalism, and Revolution in Mexico, 1890-1950 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
• M. Snodgrass, “‘New Rules for the Unions’: Mexico’s Steel Workers Confront Privatization and the Neoliberal Challenge,” Labor: Working-Class History of the Americas 4 (Fall 2007), 81-103.

References

References:

1. Web site: Navarro . María Fernanda . 2019-01-16 . Entrevista Gómez Urrutia, un cuestionado líder que quiere poner 'orden' en las empresas . 2022-08-19 . Forbes México . es-MX.
2. Web site: 2021-04-16 . La danza de los millones que Napito defraudó a mineros . 2022-08-19 . El Universal . es.
3. Web site: Napo deberá pagar deuda que lo exilió en 2006 . 2022-08-19 . El Economista . es-MX.