IndustriALL Global Union in conjunction with LabourStart began the PKC workers choose their own union campaign on 11 February as a prelude to the week of action. Already almost 7,000 emails have been sent to the CEO of PKC in Finland demanding reinstatement of sacked Los Mineros leaders and union rights at the PKC plants in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. You can send

your message from here: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1724

PKC sacked more than 100 union supporters including the entire union committee in December 2012 for campaigning for the election of an independent trade union, the National Union of Mine and Metalworkers (known as ³Los Mineros²), at their plants in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. Ten of the sacked union leaders refused to take severance pay and, along with another leader who was sacked in April 2012, are fighting for reinstatement and the right to be represented by a democratically elected union at the plant.

Meanwhile the Mexican Union of Electricity Workers (SME) is celebrating a major political victory after negotiations with the government reopened on 13 February 2013 and 9 of 10 members held for more than 1 year and 10 months were released. The freedom of Jorge Ulises Uribe is still to be secured.

The union is seeking the return to employment for the 16,599 workers of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) who did not accepted a settlement since being sacked on 10 October 2009. In an attempt to crush Mexico¹s oldest democratic union, SME, the previous president Felipe Calderón used an executive order to shut down the utility company over night sacking the entire 44,000 workforce. The SME fought for those workers¹ jobs back ever since.

Martin Esparza, SME Secretary General explained that on 20 February the union and government officials will meet to discuss the solution to their demands. "The conflict is political and has to be resolved here with government, we understand that it is not going to be solved by legal means but by politics ... It's a social conflict that the government is obliged to resolve, there is no alternative, the judgment of the Supreme Court (of 30 January) does not resolve the conflict. That is very clear and they understood it," said Martin Esparza, after a meeting with the director of the government.

IndustriALL Global Union welcomes the freedom of the prisoners and the renewed negotiations.

"This February, let¹s use our international solidarity to make a real difference to the situation for Mexican workers that face daily violations of their rights," said IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina.