17 September 2009
USW International President Leo W. Gerard has
sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a
letter condemning the punishment of workers in
Colombia who legally protested the work place death of a colleague
at a dangerous mine operated by U.S.-based Drummond.
Here's an exerpt of the
letter:
We are writing to express our grave concern about the continued
repression of the union and workers at the U.S.-based Drummond
mining facility in La Loma, Colombia.
It has come to our attention that Drummond has already fired the
entire executive board of the local Drummond union of
Sintramienergetica, and has petitioned the Colombian Labor Ministry
for permission to fire all of its 4,000 or so unionized workers in
retaliation for a recent work stoppage carried out by the union.
This work stoppage, which the employees had the right to carry out
under Colombian law and ILO Conventions 87 & 98, was carried
out to protest the work-place death of miner Dagoberto Clavijo, one
of numerous work place deaths in Drummond’s dangerous Colombian
coal mines.