MISSION MEXCIO POSTS HOLD FOLLOW-UP MEETINGS WITH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 005367

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR INL/C (BROWNE/CORDOVA),DRL/AWH AND ILCSR, WHA/MEX
FOR DDARRACH, AND DOL FOR ILAB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB SNAR PGOV ECON PINR SOCI MX
SUBJECT: MISSION MEXCIO POSTS HOLD FOLLOW-UP MEETINGS WITH
UNION, PRIVATE SECTOR AND GOVERNMENT ON DRUG ABUSE IN THE
WORKPLACE

REF: MEXICO 4114

MEXICO 00005367 001.2 OF 004




1. SUMMARY: In September, AmConsul Matamoros and Embassy
Mexico City,s Labor Counselor held separate follow-up
meetings aimed at coordinating actions to combat abuse in the
workplace. These follow-ups were the promised next steps to
a discussion began on July 20 when AmConsul Matamoros hosted
a gathering whose primary goal, in addition to opening a
discussion on the problems of drug abuse in the workplace,
also sought to increase areas of cooperation between the CTM,
(Mexico,s largest labor federation) and the USG (Reftel).
The first follow up meeting took place in Matamoros on
September 7; the second in Mexico City on September 27. The
follow-up meeting in Matamoros included a large number of
government participants (federal, state and local) as well as
a significant number of labor representatives from a variety
of unions. The federal government participants informally
indicated that the GOM was prepared to participate in what
the CTM hopes will develop info a broad bi-national
initiative but with a special focus along the US/Mexico
border. The September 27 meeting established a de facto
executive committee to review and expand on the Matamoros
agreements. This meeting also proposed a tentative list of
places (not all of them restricted to the border) where a
Matamoros type model agreement could be or was already in the
process of being established. (Though various suggestions on
how to proceed with the pilot program were raised, it was
decided to move forward with efforts to document existing
programs and local community efforts and wait until a future
meeting to determine the long-range and short-range goals of
the program.) END SUMMARY.


BACKGROUND ON UNION/USG COOPERATION
--------------


2. In recent months AmConsul Matamoros personnel and Mission
Mexico,s Labor Counselor have worked together to promote the
idea of a more institutionalized relationship between the USG
and one of Mexico,s larger labor organizations, the
Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). The CTM is perhaps
the largest federation of labor unions in Mexico and is
roughly equivalent to the US, AFL-CIO. A significant step
forward in the effort to promote Union/USG cooperation
occurred on July 20 when AmConsul Matamoros hosted a meeting
largely organized by the CTM,s Social Welfare Office
(Reftel). The intent of this meeting was to discuss ways to
support the CTM,s Social Welfare Office,s efforts to deal
with the issue of drug abuse in the workplace.


3. Drug abuse in the workplace is a growing problem in
Mexico where most observers, including those in the labor
sector, now acknowledge that Mexico is both a drug transit
and a drug consuming country. Various aspects of the
problems of drug abuse in the work place include such issues
absenteeism, increases in job related accidents, lost
productivity, theft of company property, violence and drug
trafficking on company property. In addition to the above
issues, the American Chamber of Commerce,s Human Resources
and Labor Committee indicates that many employers are now
confronting the dilemma of simultaneously dealing with two
very different drug problems; (1) substance among executives
(who use stimulants to gain a competitive edge at the office)
and (2) substance abuse among lower level workers (who use
depressants to numb themselves so they can get through the
work day).


4. The July 20 meeting ultimately developed beyond just a
gathering of USG and CTM officials to include a Mexican
government representative, an official of a concerned NGO and
the Matamoros President of CANACINTRA (a business alliance
roughly equivalent to the US, National Association of
Manufacturers) representing the private sector. During the
course of that meeting the group settled on the idea of a
multidisciplinary project to address the problems of drug
abuse in the workplace involving unions, the private sector
and the governments of the US and Mexico supporting the

MEXICO 00005367 002.2 OF 004


initiative as appropriate. At the end of the meeting the
Mexico City CTM official conferred with the participants to
work out the next steps in the initiative. The first thing
everyone agreed on was the need for a follow-up meeting to
set realistic goals. The participants also wanted to ensure
that whatever they attempted would not be duplicative of
ongoing efforts of other organizations or government agencies
related to the problems of drug abuse. The follow-up meeting
was set for August 14.


INITIAL FOLLOW-UP MEETING IN MATAMOROS
--------------


5. The idea of a multidisciplinary project involving unions,
the private sector and the governments of the US and Mexico
to examine the problems workplace drug abuse caught the
attention of a large number of GOM actors many of whom wanted
to be involved. The growing number of potential participants
forced the previously scheduled August 14 meeting to be
postponed until September 7. This growing number of
interested GOM players also prompted an increase in the
number of non-GOM actors who wanted to learn about the
initiative. Ultimately close to 40 different federal, state,
local and various union and private sector participants
attended the meeting.


6. The various participants and/or government
representatives at the September 7 Matamoros meeting were as
follows:

GOM Federal:

Sub-Director for Border Issues of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (SRE);
Director of the Public Security Secretariat,s (SSP) Crime
Prevention Office;
Director of Work Equality for Women and Minors, Secretariat
of Labor (STPS);
Director of Sustainable Development and Gender Equality,
National Institute of Women, INM;
Director General of the Center for Youth Integration (CIJ, a
parastatal agency affiliated with the Secretariat of Health);
Director of Sectoral Coordination, Secretariat of Health (SS);

Tamualipas State Government:

Director, Office of Employment, Office of the Governor of
Tamualipas;
President of DIF, Tamualipas (Family Welfare Agency);
State Secretary of Public Security;
State Secretary of Public Education;
Director of CERESO (State Prison);
Director of CIPAD (State Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Treatment);

Local Union, Government and Private Sector Representatives:

Secretary General, CTM Regional Office, Matamoros;

SIPDIS
President of Maquiladora Association of Matamoros;
Secretary General, Telephone Workers Union;

SIPDIS
Secretary General, Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS)

SIPDIS
Workers Union;
Secretary General, Union of Maquiladora and Assembly Industry

SIPDIS
Workers;
Secretary General, Union of Industrial Workers of Maquiladora

SIPDIS
Plants;
Representatives of the Union of Day Laborers and Workers of
the Maquiladora Industry (SJOIIM);


President of DIF, Matamoros (Family Welfare Agency);
Municipal Secretary of Public Security, Matamoros;

President of CANACINTRA;
President of COPARMEX (Mexican equivalent US Chamber of
Commerce);


MEXICO 00005367 003.2 OF 004


Also in attendance was AmConsul Matamoros, Principal
Officer, the Chief of the Consular Section, the Economic
coned ELO assigned to the project, the Coordinator of CTM
Social Welfare Office in Mexico City and a representative
from CTM,s main office in the neighboring state of Coahuila.


7. The main accomplishment of the Matamoros meeting was the
establishment of an executive committee to coordinate with
the other agencies and organizations interested in the
Matamoros model agreement. The members of this committee are
the President of CANACINTRA, Matamoros, the Secretary General
of the CTM Regional Office in Matamoros and AmConsul
Matamoros Principal Officer. During the course of the
meeting it soon became apparent that many of the ideas for
combating drug abuse in workplace were already being carried
out piecemeal (with significant human resources in some
cases) but with little real coordination. All the meeting
participants agreed to look for ways to reach across the
border to US organization dealing with drug problems in the
workplace. They also decided to give a prominent role in
their activities to those organizations capable of making
this initiative known to both the labor and non-labor sectors
of the local society.


THE MEXICO CITY FOLLOW-UP
--------------


8. In comparison to the Matamoros meeting, the September 27
follow-up in Mexico City was a modest affair. The meeting
was organized by the CTM,s Social Welfare Office and was
attended by representatives from the National Institute of
Women (INM),the Secretariats of Health and Labor (SS and
STPS respectively),the National Institute of Psychiatry
(INP) and Mission Mexico,s Labor Counselor. After a review
of the results of the September 7 meeting the participants at
the Mexico City gathering discussed the idea of adopting
how-to manual recently produced by the INP as the focus of
efforts to combat workplace drug abuse.


9. The INP manual, entitled &Alcohol and Drugs in the
Workplace: A Manual for Prevention8 provides step by step
instructions for developing a drug abuse prevention program.
The manual starts with an overview of the drug abuse problem
in Mexico, then lays out the basics for implementing the
components of a prevention program and ends with a practical
guide for evaluating the results of the program. The general
consensus was that by using the INP manual as a common guide,
all the actors interested in addressing the problem of drug
abuse in the workplace would be starting from the same place
and following a shared plan of action.


10. Over the course of the Mexico City meeting, the need for
a common plan of action became increasingly clear as the
various actors laid out their different institutional
positions. For example the INM made clear that its main
interest was in providing assistance to women workers who may
have drug problems. The Labor Secretariat representative
indicated that the STPS was interested in assisting all
workers (young or old, men or women) but that it was not
particularly interested in focusing its efforts on the
border. Instead the STPS representative indicated that her
agency planned to focus its efforts on assisting workers
employed in Mexico,s tourist industries in places like
Merida, Cancun (in AmConsul Merida,s consular district),as
well as in Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta (AmConsul
Guadalajara,s consular district). For its part the CTM
indicated that it planned to continue its efforts at or near
the border with a particular emphasis on places with nearby
USG consulates like AmConsul Matamoros, AmConsul Hermosillo
and Saltillo (part of AmConsul Monterrey,s consular
district). Mission Mexico,s Labor Counselor offered to
advise the relevant USG offices of both CTM and STPS
activities in their consular districts related to the effort
of combating drug abuse in the workplace. At present the CTM
appears most interested in (A) being able to count on the
moral leadership of the USG in supporting this initiative and
(B) being able to leverage that moral leadership as it works

MEXICO 00005367 004.2 OF 004


to establish contacts and gain material support on the US
side of two countries, common border.


COMMENT
--------------


11. If the presence of so many different actors at the two
meetings to discuss the problem of workplace drug abuse is
any indication, this initiative to increase Union and USG
cooperation seems to be gaining momentum. Although the
different GOM agencies have their own clearly stated
priorities, a broad range of Mexican authorities are now
aware of the initiative and tacitly given it a go-ahead to
proceed. At this point the initiative is still very much in
the talking stage and a great deal remains to be done before
any concrete results can be obtained in the area of dealing
with workplace drug abuse. That said, and regardless of the
differing priorities of the various GOM agencies, the
majority of other actors such as the unions, the private
sector, the NGOs and the state and local governments
contacted, all appear willing and eager to support the
initiative as originally planned by Mission Mexico personnel
and the CTM.



12. This message was cleared by AmConsul Matamoros.



Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap /
BASSETT