| MEXICO CITY, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A Mexican federal labor
arbitration board on Thursday declared illegal a 21-day strike by sugar
refinery workers that has paralyzed the country's struggling
industry.
As a result of the order issued by the Federal Conciliation and
Arbitration Board, sugar workers have 24 hours to return to work, the
Labor Ministry said in a statement.
The board also ordered workers and refinery owners to continue
negotiations in a bid to resolve the dispute over pay and pension-plan
benefits.
The strike, which has affected most of the nation's 60 sugar mills, is
the latest in a series of setbacks for the Mexican sugar industry,
straining under depressed world prices and a trade dispute with the United
States, potentially its biggest market.
Some 40,000 of Mexico's 50,000 sugar workers joined the strike, which
came just as the 2000-2001 season cane harvest was beginning. |