US Urged to Act Against Alabama Coal Company for Union Repression in Colombia

[Louisiana1976]

A U.S. union wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week expressing "grave concern" over Birmingham, Ala.-based Drummond Co.'s punishment of Colombian miners who went on strike over safety conditions they say led to a fellow worker's death.

United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard sent a letter to Clinton on Sept. 17 in response to Drummond's firing of the entire executive board of a local of the Sintramienergetica union. Drummond has also asked permission from the Colombian Labor Ministry to fire some 4,000 unionized workers. Drummond's actions come in retaliation for a work stoppage at its mine in La Loma, Colombia.

In March of this year, thousands of Colombian miners working for Drummond participated in the strike after their colleague Dagoberto Clavijo was killed when the truck he was driving fell into one of the company's open-pit mines. The union says driving conditions were unsafe.

The United Steelworkers union points out that the miners had the right to engage in the work stoppage under both Colombian law and International Labor Organization conventions. It also notes that a Colombian judge recently ordered that top Drummond executives -- including President Garry Drummond and Augusto Jimenez, head of the company's Colombian operations -- be criminally investigated for conspiring with paramilitaries to carry out the murders of union leaders Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler in 2001.

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