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### Viewing cable 10BOGOTA115, DRUMMOND FIRES WORKERS FOR ILLEGAL STRIKE

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
10BOGOTA115 | 2010-02-01 14:02 | 2011-03-16 12:12 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Bogota
Appears in these articles: http://www.elespectador.com/wikileaks

`

    VZCZCXYZ0001
    RR RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHBO #0115/01 0321441
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    R 011441Z FEB 10
    FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2419
    INFO RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
    RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
    RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
    RUCNFB/FBI WASHINGTON DC
    RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
    RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
    RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
    RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
    RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
    RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS
    RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL
    RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA
    RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO
    RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA
    RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

` `

    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
    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============================

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