Drummond

Drummond Co.'s July legal victory over accusations it ordered the murders of three Colombian labor leaders has been appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Reprinted from FightBackNews.org

By Chapin Gray

Birmingham, AL - On July 26, Drummond Co., a Birmingham-based coal company, was found 'not liable' in the deaths Colombian trade unionists Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita - the head of a union local and his deputy - as well as the next union president Gustavo
Soler. The three leaders of the Sintamienergética miners union worked at the Drummond’s La Loma mine in northern Colombia. They were tortured and murdered in 2001.

Reprinted from Workers.org

By Minnie Bruce Pratt
Birmingham, Ala.
Published Aug 2, 2007 1:01 AM

In a blow against transnational exploitation of workers and for North-South worker solidarity, Drummond, an Alabama-based coal company, was put on trial in federal court here, charged with the murder of labor union organizers at its mines in Colombia.

In 2001 Valmore Lacarno Rodríguez and Víctor Hugo Orcasita Amaya were murdered by a group of men, some wearing military uniforms. Lacarno and Orcasita were president and vice-president of the union representing 3,000 miners, SINTRAMIENERGETICA. Shortly thereafter Gustavo Soler was murdered when he became union president.

Birmingham, AL - "Who is a terrorist? Drummond is a terrorist!" rang through downtown here, July 9 as members of Students for a Democratic Society at Tuscaloosa and Birmingham peace activists marched towards the Federal Courthouse to demand justice for the three Colombian trade unionists murdered in 2001 and 2002.

Drummond, an Alabama-based coal company, is being charged with arranging the murders to halt unionizing efforts in its La Loma plant in Northern Colombia. Initially the corporation faced both wrongful death and war crimes charges, but the former charge was thrown out by Bush-appointed judge Karon Bowdre.

Birmingham, AL - In northwestern Colombia in 2001, the president and vice president of the mining union Sintramienergetica were taken off a Drummond bus and shot to death by paramilitary death squads hired by the corporation. Later that year, paramilitaries also killed the new president. These men were all killed during negotiations with Drummond.