Mexico labor board confirms split from miners union

MEXICO CITY, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Mexico's labor board confirmed on Monday a decision by thousands of workers to abandon the country's powerful mining union as an eleven-week strike hobbled heavyweight copper producer Grupo Mexico.

Workers at eight Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) units, including major copper mine La Caridad, voted overwhelmingly in September to abandon the 73-year old National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic in favor of a new union, a shift widely seen as advantageous to the company.

The union claims the vote was won with dirty trick and said it would go to court to stop the new union, which it says is in Grupo Mexico's pocket.

"It's a white union, the company's union," union official Carlos Pavon told Reuters. "The board has always been the workers' worst enemy."

Unaffected by the desertions are three Grupo Mexico mines, including its key Cananea pit, that have been on strike since the end of July.

The strike is nominally over safety conditions and pay but is also related to a long-running power struggle between union leader Napoleon Gomez and Grupo Mexico.

The union has called numerous strikes in the last year in support of the beleaguered leader, battered by corruption charges and an orchestrated campaign to oust him.