Standing Fast

From Labor Notes Magazine:

FLOC ORGANIZER MURDERED
Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) based in Toledo, Ohio, was found murdered in the union's office in Monterrey, Mexico on the morning of April 9. He had been bound hand and foot and beaten to death. Circumstances suggest labor contractors may have had him killed.

Cruz, 29, had worked for FLOC in the United States for four years
organizing immigrant agricultural workers. For less than a month
working for the FLOC in the Monterrey office that was set up in 2005
to help process H2A visa workers whose employers were under FLOC
contracts.

FLOC has asked the AFL-CIO and Rep. Marcy Kaptur's (D-Ohio) to
request that the U.S. State Department press the Mexican government
to conduct a thorough and speedy investigation to bring the killers to
justice. John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, has called on the
Mexican and U.S. governments to ensure that there is a "thorough and
professional investigation" of the murder.

URGENT ACTION
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee asks that you send a letter to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requesting (not demanding)
that they take on the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz as an official
case. In your letter you might express your awareness that FLOC's
contract was protecting workers and eliminating the extortion of
illegal fees from workers, your outrage at this political murder, and
your request that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights take
on the Cruz murder case.

It is important to send your fax today, Friday, April 13, 2007 to:

Executive Secretary
Dr. Santiago A. Canton
Inter-american Commission on Human Rights
1889 F. St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Phone 202-458-5062
FAX 202-458-6215

Please also write to the Mexican Ambassador expressing your outrage at
the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz and demanding a rapid, thorough and
professional investigation of his murder.

Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan
Mexican Embassy
1911 Pennsylvania AV, NW, Washington D.C. 20006
Tel: (202) 728 1600

Labels: Farm Labor Organizing Committee