LatinNews Daily - 20 June 2024

*Consejo de Empresas Globales (CEG), an organisation representing over 60 of the biggest firms with a presence in Mexico, has expressed concern regarding a strike at facilities run by multinational steel producer ArcelorMittal in Mexico’s Michoacán state. The strike action began in late May, with workers affiliated with a section of the national mining union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana (SNTMMSSRM) protesting over profit-sharing payments earmarked for them by the company for 2023. A CEG statement warns that the blocking of access and seizures of installations by strikers “infringes on the rule of law” and calls for this to be respected with regard to resolving the dispute. These concerns by CEG, whose members account for 40% of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico and generate 10% of the country’s GDP, echoes similar alarms raised by Mexico’s national iron and steel chamber (Canacero) on 14 June.