DRUMMOND FIRES WORKERS FOR ILLEGAL STRIKE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 000115 SENSITIVE SIPDIS USTR FOR EISSENSTAT AND HARMAN DOL FOR ZOLLNER AND QUINTANA E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/01 TAGS: ELAB EAID ETRD PGOV PHUM PREL USTR LAB CO SUBJECT: DRUMMOND FIRES WORKERS FOR ILLEGAL STRIKE REF: 09 BOGOTA 3127; 09 BOGOTA 3302 CLASSIFIED BY: Mark A. Wells, Political Counselor; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) U.S. mining company Drummond has begun the process of firing the majority of the National Mining and Energy Industry Workers' Union's (SINTRAMIENERGETICA) 35-member board of directors due to the union's illegal strike in March 2009. SINTRAMIENERGETICA leaders have urged a negotiated solution mediated by the Ministry of Social Protection (MPS) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) as an alternative to dismissals, while criticizing Drummond's occupational safety record and practices. Drummond executives defended the company's safety record, and refused to entertain further negotiations with the union's current leadership, citing its role in organizing the illegal strike, and its efforts to hijack the company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program for political ends. End Summary. DRUMMOND EXPECTS TO ONLY FIRE 35 -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Colombia's Supreme Court upheld on September 29 a lower court ruling (not published until December 16) that declared illegal a strike organized by SINTRAMIENERGETICA at Drummond's La Loma mine and Santa Marta port operations in March 2009 (reftel a). Colombian labor law (Labor Code Article 450) allows companies to dismiss workers who have actively promoted and participated in an illegal strike. Accordingly, Drummond has commenced internal disciplinary proceedings to fire the most active organizers, including most of the 35-member union board and several rank and file union members. ¶3. (SBU) Colombia Drummond President Augusto Jimenez told us that the company had already dismissed 14 union leaders and suspended one in relation to the court verdict; 20 proceedings were ongoing. Drummond also issued a statement to 2,200 SINTRAMIENERGETICA members on December 21 advising them of the disciplinary proceedings against the union's leaders; ensuring them that the union itself and its collective bargaining agreement would remain viable; and urging them to reorganize and elect a new board of directors. While Drummond has ceased talks with SINTRAMIENERGETICA leaders, Jimenez reported that he was in a dialogue with Unified �00A;Workers Central (CUT) President Tarsicio Mora Godoy and President Uribe to work out a solution to the company's labor relations problems. UNION LEADERS WANT A NEGOTIATED SOLUTION -------------- ¶4. (SBU) SINTRAMIENERGETICA leaders criticized the Supreme Court's decision, but acknowledged its final authority on the matter and the culmination of the legal process. Sectional (El Paso) XXXXXXXXXXXX said that the dismissals were forgone conclusions, evidenced by Drummond's statement advising workers to elect a new union board before most of the disciplinary proceedings had even begun. Moreover, Avila warned that the dismissals would hurt the industry by signaling that mining companies could flaunt safety laws with impunity. (Note: the March 2009 strike was precipitated by a fatal driving accident in Drummond's La Loma mine on March 22.End Note.) As an alternative, union leaders urged a negotiated solution between the company and the union mediated by the MPS and an ILO representative. They said that Vice Minister of Labor Ricardo Andres Echeverri had agreed to participate, and asked us to pressure Drummond into accepting mediation. ¶5. (SBU) SINTAMIENERGETICA leaders said their primary concern remained the safety of Drummond mine and port workers. They told us that Drummond ignored its occupational safety obligations as a cost-saving measure. Consequently, 16 Drummond workers had been killed and 275 injured in industrial accidents since 1996. Avila claimed that Drummond regularly fired sick and injured workers, or placed them in a "transitional employment" program (instead of classifying them as "sick" or "injured") to massage its safety record. Avila said Drummond management had also repeatedly refused the union's requests for a dialogue on occupational safety issues, and noted that two recent safety-related sanctions levied on the company by the MPS, totaling about USD $10,000, would do little to enforce compliance. DRUMMOND DEFENDS ITS SAFETY RECORD -------------- ¶6. (C) Jimenez said that the company's safety incidence rate, an index measuring time lost due to safety incidents per 100 employees per year, had been consistently lower than the U.S. average for surface mining activity (.35 compared to 1.49 in the United States). He provided company documentation of 13 work-related deaths, including ten in its mines and three in its port facilities. (Note: SINTRAMIENERGETICA's higher count of 16 deaths includes two union leaders assassinated in 2001 (reftel b) and a port worker who died at a private medical facility of other health complications, which by company criteria were not work-related fatalities. End Note.) According to Jimenez, Drummond was found partially negligent and sanctioned in relation to only three of the 13 fatal accidents. ¶7. (C) Jimenez said Drummond did not fire workers due to job-related injuries and illnesses, nor did it classify them as transitionally employed to massage safety statistics. Jimenez noted, however, that workers frequently tried to pass off common illnesses as work-related and regularly bribed health and insurance authorities to improve benefits levels. As such, Drummond meticulously documented and investigated each work-related accident or illness. ¶8. (C) The transitional employment program provides incapacitated workers with regular medical examinations, rehabilitation, and medically-approved tasks and work schedules. Out of approximately 4,500 direct-hire employees (there are 18 thousand total including indirect-hires),Jimenez said 239 workers are currently classified as injured: 44 due to work accidents; 55 from work-related illnesses; 47 due to common illnesses unrelated to work; and 93 are still under evaluation. Additionally, 23 are completely incapacitated and 216 are working in the transitional employment program. DRUMMOND SAYS UNION "PLAYING POLITICS" -------------- ¶9. (C) Jimenez told us that politics, not safety, was the union leadership's primary concern, and the root of Drummond's problems with SINTRAMIENERGETICA. Avila and others who were running for local public office had aligned themselves with the governor of Cesar Department in an attempt to gain control of Drummond's substantial Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program and associated budget and use it to curry votes among the population. Drummond's refusal to relinquish control of its CSR program to the union was a source of tension between the company, the union, and the governor. Jimenez asserted that Avila and other union leaders had rallied workers around occupational safety issues as a smokescreen for their own political ambitions. BROWNFIELD =======================CABLE ENDS============================