From workers' struggle to resignation to liquidation: Closure of Fundidora Monterrey and its immediate effects (1986)

Abstract

Overnight, on May 10, 1986, the workers of Fundidora Monterrey, along with Monterrey’s broader society, learned that the emblematic company of Nuevo León had gone bankrupt. After discovering that the closure of Fundidora had been carried out through illegal means, the unionized workers of Sections 67 and 68 mobilized to fight for the reopening of their source of employment, all while facing attacks from most of the media. At the same time, the death of the “Steel Elephant” was applauded by a vast majority of the business sector in the Sultana del Norte. Nevertheless, some unions, journalists, and entrepreneurs expressed their support for the steelworkers and advocated for the reopening of what had been the first integrated steel plant with a blast furnace in Latin America. For various reasons—chiefly economic—the reopening proved impossible, and on June 20 the remaining workers in the movement decided, with heavy hearts, to accept their severance pay. The purpose of this text is to analyze the immediate, short-term effects of the closure of Fundidora Monterrey on its workers and on Monterrey’s society.