A Canadian-owned mining operation in Zacatecas weaponized narco violence against its own workers who tried to organize—hiring cartel gunmen to terrorize union meetings, threaten families, and force employees into a company-controlled syndicate, according to a landmark ruling by a U.S. trade enforcement panel.
The Rapid Response Mechanism panel under the USMCA trade agreement found that Orla Mining's Camino Rojo mine in Mazapil bears direct responsibility for employer interference in workers' freedom of association—deploying armed sicarios to break legitimate union organizing.
According to La Jornada, the panel documented evidence of violence and death threats against workers affiliated with Section 335 of the National Mining Union, led by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, who now serves in Mexico's Senate.
"The mine hired a drug trafficker to disrupt union meetings with armed individuals, issue death threats, and coerce workers to accept the company's preferred union," the U.S. Department of Labor stated in announcing the panel's findings.
This isn't labor intimidation. This is corporations outsourcing union-busting to the cartels.
Workers trying to hold assemblies were confronted by armed men. Union organizers received threats at their homes. Families were told what would happen if they didn't abandon the metalworkers' union and sign with the Federación Nacional de Sindicatos Independientes—a so-called "protection" union loyal to management.
The panel found that Orla Mining "maintained silence and showed tolerance" toward these violations, neither investigating reports nor taking action to stop the terror campaign.
This is the third case resolved under the USMCA's labor enforcement mechanism—and it exposes a grotesque reality: 's cartel violence isn't just about drugs. It's a tool corporations can rent to crush worker organizing.
