By: Camila Ramírez – January 22th, 2015
More than 800 mechanics of the coal mines operated in Colombia by Drummond have lost their jobs in the northern departments Cesar, La Guajira and Atlántico, after which the company Dimantec Ltda., on December 31st last year, decided to dispense with their services without just cause.
Dimantec is a mechanical maintenance company specialized in mining machinery that provides its services to Gecolsa S.A., a subsidiary of Caterpillar in Colombia, that in turn is contracted by Drummond in a complex maneuver of labor outsourcing from which the mining multinational gains important economic benefits, given that a contracted worker under this category receives a salary well below that of the staff although both perform the same functions.
At the end of last year, the National Union of Industry Workers of Metal-Mechanics, Metal, Metallurgic, Iron and Steel, Electrometallurgy, Railway, Transportation and Commercialization of the Sector (SINTRAIME), expressed its concern over the terminations and has asked the Minister of Labor to intervene in order to guarantee that these people maintain their job stability and are not left out on the streets. Nevertheless, even today Dimantec continues its practice of massive firings without making important efforts to resolve the conflict at hand.
Drummond has been extensively questioned for their connections to paramilitary groups and the environmental damages that their operations create in Colombia. Today, according to their web page, they are exploiting the coal mines of Pribbenow, El Descanso, La Loma and Rincón Hondo, and are awaiting the environmental license to do the same in Similoa and Cerrolargo, all in the Cesar department.
Massive Layoffs
On October 20th, 2015, Dimantec gathered its mining workers from Pribbenow and El Descanso to announce that Drummond had made a bid in which it was defined that the company would be replaced in the maintenance contract by CHM Minería, a subsidiary of Hitachi, and that this implicated the termination of the labor contracts beginning December 31st, 2015. This left more than 800 people without work, but Dimantec did not make a commitment to carry out a clean transition process with CHM that would allow the workers to fall under the umbrella of ownership substitution defined by law and that would guarantee their stability.
José Díaz, president of the Chiriguaná branch of SINTRAIME, expressed that the responsibility for the loss of these employees lies with “the multinationals themselves, Drummond and Gecolsa, that invent some alleged bids that are not made public at any moment, because if there is a bid […] it should be made known, at least, to the workers”.
However, the firings began some time ago. SINTRAIME has denounced the fact that before December 31 various workers were called to be released from their responsibilities and let go without legitimate cause. This is the case of Alfonso Bohórquez who, despite being protected by union immunity, was fired on December 14th. In a statement, the union organization reports that “the company […] has letters on the table to dismiss union directors who are present, as a strategy for workers to fade into the background due to their position as laborers, but in inferior conditions with CHM Minería SAS”.
For its part, Dimantec gave the workers until December 30th to resign and be contracted by CHM Minería, without clarifying why it offers this ‘guarantee’ of being contracted by a company that supposedly has no relation to the previous one. Similarly, Dimantec has extended the deadlines at various times with the intention to continue persuading workers to renounce the rights that were previously assured to them. On that matter, José Díaz discloses:
When they are at the office they are offered the voluntary retirement bonus or the letter of dismissal […] without respecting circumstantial jurisdiction, health jurisdiction, union jurisdiction, violating all these privileges, breaking the law […] they continue pressuring the people with the letters.
The workers are outraged that some of their sacked colleagues suffer from occupational health illnesses, such as herniated discs, silicosis and work stress, and therefore were under medical treatment. Furthermore, they assure that the company is not guaranteeing due process nor is it monitoring the clinical cases of the workers. In this sense, Jesús Zappa, president of the Soledad branch of SINTRAIME, states:
The workers were referred to the location where the company told them that the tests were made and they are only doing a physical exam. For us, when we joined the company, they perform a physical exam on us, a spirometry, an audiometry examination, bone tests. Now they are just doing physical exams, so there is no guarantee that you are in proper physical condition.
In addition, the union organization assures that many of the workers that quit did it under pressure, given their economic situation and the fact that they have to provide a living for their families. Concerning this issue, Jesús Zappa states:
We are at a point where they are taking advantage because the people must, at the beginning of the year, pay tuition, buy tools, buy uniforms […] there are many things to juggle and [for which] the people, unfortunately, have made the decision to quit.
Ministry of Labor and Labor Rights
Despite the labor crisis in Cesar, the Ministry of Labor remains silent. In that regard, SINTRAIME said that they have repeatedly requested the Ministry to intervene in the labor dispute, but so far the entity has not offered concrete solutions to this problem.
In fact, the only public statement about this conflict was given by the head of the department, Luis Eduardo Garzón, last November 9th when he referred to requests of Dimantec, Archie’s, Hyundai and Pacific Rubiales to make mass layoffs of at least 7,000 people, saying:
We have received letters from some companies, and some companies are telling us ‘we have no choice but to lay off workers’ […] the workers have lent a great service to these companies and cannot now be treated as part of its liabilities.
Given the silence of the government, the workers have held sit-ins, meetings and days of protest outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Labor in Valledupar and Barraquilla to pressure the company to sit down and talk with the union. So far, the territorial directors of Valledupar and Barraquilla were assigned the responsibility of approaching and talking to the companies, but no agreement has been reached yet.
On its behalf, SINTRAIME asks that an investigation be opened of the companies and multinationals operating in the mining corridor of Cesar, considering that some of them continue to practice illegal labor outsourcing and violate the rights of workers. This is the case of Gecolsa and Dimantec, which were sanctioned in April 2014 by the Ministry of Labor for this practice, both companies receiving fines of 3000 minimum salaries. This sanction was in limbo since the decision was overturned by Rafael Pardo, who then held the position of Minister of Labor.
In addition, José Díaz denounced the Ministry of Labor of Valledupar:
[For Dimantec] they opened an official investigation for an informal hiring […] there is already a process for a preliminary investigation of this and, if we have these investigations, what about the Ministry? They are laying off people, they are failing to uphold due process, they are inventing maneuvers, we have denounced them, but when the employer informs an alleged cease of activity, suddenly the inspectors appear.
Mobilization for Decent Work Conditions
SINTRAIME assures that the labor dispute alive in the Cesar mining corridor is due to the poor practices of multinationals operating in the region and national government policies that facilitate labor outsourcing, low wages, occupational illness and the persecution of trade unions and unionized workers, among others.
For this reason, SINTRAIME has launched a call for the general population to reject the massive layoffs of the approaching multinationals and that the workers fight for direct contracting without intermediaries including decent working conditions. In this regard, Jesús Zappa poses that solidarity and support to those who are losing their jobs is necessary.
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*Translated by: Liesl Drew.
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