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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
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RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS
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RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA
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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============================