Reply #2: Here are some earlier articles DU'ers read on this rotten company which has headquarters in B'ham,

[Judi Lynn]

and operates in Colombia, using death squads to enforce its will on the union workers:


Edited on Tue Jul-24-07 03:19 PM by Judi Lynn
Source: Forbes/Associated Press

Drummond Union: Govt Muffles Key Witness
By FRANK BAJAK 07.24.07, 2:02 PM ET

BOGOTA, Colombia - The union activists suing U.S. coal company Drummond Co. Inc. in Alabama in the 2001 murders of three labor leaders say deliberate foot-dragging by Colombian authorities is preventing the jury from hearing their star witness.

"The strategy of these people is to delay the process so the trial ends without this evidence being presented," said Francisco Ramirez, a union official working with the plaintiffs. "They're giving us the runaround."

Concerned by the delay, 12 Democrats in the U.S. Congress wrote Colombia's vice president last week asking him to intercede.

There is also worry over the safety of the witness, Rafael Garcia, who is in a maximum-security Bogota prison.

The Democrat who chairs a House subcommittee on international human rights, Rep. William Delahunt, wrote President Alvaro Uribe last month asking he guarantee protection for Garcia.



http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14615

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2928336

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Omaha Steve (1000+ posts)
Fri Jul-13-07 06:05 PM
Original message
Union Leader Claims Threats by Drummond


Union Leader Claims Threats by Drummond
By JAY REEVES 07.12.07, 3:30 PM ET

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/12/ap3909189.htm...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -

A mining union official testified Thursday that the head of Drummond coal in Colombia threatened him after the killings of three labor leaders whose families blame the company for the murders.

Juan Aguas Romero, the education secretary for two unions in the South American country, testified in the second day of a civil lawsuit accusing Drummond Ltd. of having paramilitary gunmen kill the three men.

Drummond, a privately owned company based in Alabama, calls the slayings tragic but denies any involvement with the murders or with militias in Colombia.

Aguas said Augusto Jimenez, president of Drummond's operations in Colombia, made threatening comments during meetings that followed the gunshot killings of two union leaders in 2001 and the slaying of a third union official months later.

Once, Aguas said, Jimenez told him that a "fish that swims with its mouth opens soon dies." A former Drummond employee previously testified that Jimenez made a similar comment to him in a private discussion about union negotiations.

FULL story at link.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14615

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Drummond case shows danger facing Colombian unions
16 Nov 2006 19:51:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

Colombia displacement
More By Hugh Bronstein

LA LOMA, Colombia, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A labor union leader at the U.S.-owned Drummond coal mine was pulled off a bus in northern Colombia and shot to death by masked right-wing gunmen one March evening in 2001, according to court papers accusing the company of ordering the killing.

The body of Valmore Locarno was displayed to the other passengers as a warning about what happens to labor activists in this war-twisted country where leftist guerrillas are pitted against right-wing paramilitaries. The union's No. 2, Victor Orcasita, was thrown into a pickup truck and killed later.

"The paramilitaries boarded the bus and asked for Locarno and Orcasita by name, saying that these two had a problem with Drummond," a court document says.

The U.S. federal lawsuit filed in Drummond's home state of Alabama has gained attention in Europe, where power companies DONG of Denmark and Essent of the Netherlands said last week they halted new coal purchases from the company. Both are minor clients.
(snip)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16333983.htm

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Eugene (1000+ posts)
Thu Jul-26-07 04:44 PM
Original message
Drummond cleared in landmark Colombia rights case

Source: Reuters

Drummond cleared in landmark Colombia rights case
Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:53PM EDT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. coal company
Drummond was acquitted on Thursday of liability over the
killing of three union leaders in 2001 at a mine it operates in
Colombia in what legal experts viewed as a landmark case.

The jury in the civil trial rejected the plaintiffs' accusation
that privately held Drummond Co. Inc. gave support to right-
wing paramilitaries who carried out the killings and was thus
liable for the deaths.

The families' lawyers said Drummond hired the masked gunmen
who killed Drummond employees Valmore Locarno and Victor
Orcasita in March 2001 and Gustavo Soler seven months later.

-snip-
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2646318320070726

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2930905