In the early morning hours of February 19, 2006, a sudden blast shook a coal mine in northern Mexico, trapping sixty-five workers in a subterranean tunnel. Labor department inspectors and the company operating the mine had ignored the egregiously hazardous state of the work site and were failing miserably at a rescue effort. The senseless tragedy-- stemming directly from an insatiable hunger for profits-- set off a massive confrontation between the National Miners' Union and the transnational corporations that wield great power in the country's government.