An International Confederation of Workers (CIT), which gathers 10 workers' federations and more than 150 trade unions from Mexico, was formally introduced Thursday 14th of February. The new union was pushed by the Mexican National Union of Metallurgical and Similar Mineworkers, led by Napoleon Gomez who received the Arthur Svensson award in 2014. A constitutive assembly was held at the national headquarters of the mining union. Gomez pointed out that this new grouping could become a national confederation and union organization 'if the working class decides so'.
In an article in La Jornada (in Spanish) Gomez says that CIT 'will be a formidable tool towards the fight of the working class' and 'the road to take will be the search to enforce and make effective the rights to free union organization, both national and international; the attainment of decent wages and working conditions that preserve the dignity, safety and the health of the workers and their families; stable and safe jobs, but also the rescue of the unions and the creation of new organizations that face with courage and firmness the challenges that the workers have before us.'
Gomez says that it is up to the workers to develop the class solidarity that demands the current time, to enforce the predicates and values of the working class. The first step is to clean up the political panorama and the representation of the existing union organizations. The strategy of the enemies of the workers has for years been to demobilize the workers with respect to their organizations and struggles, to create weak unions manageable by the bosses, which count on powerful advisers and legal offices consecrated to corrupt authorities and union leaders. Employers "unions" have grown along with collective contracts for business protection
Gomez underlines that the new headquarter will have a modern, free, democratic, and open vision, with consultations and direct elections, where the secret vote of the members will prevail. This confederation will not be an agency either of the government nor of Morena nor anyone, but the associated workers.