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

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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

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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
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

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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

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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"

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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

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