News from USWA: Colombian Union Leaders Released Unharmed Following Steelworkers Protest, Red Cross Intervention.

Business Editors

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 2003

Federal Court Denies Motion to Dismiss Colombian Miner's Claims

Against Drummond Co. under Alien Tort Claims Acts 

News from USWA: Two officials of the Colombian mining union SINTRAMIENERGETICA, who were abducted September 29, 2003, have been released unharmed, the United Steelworkers of America announced here today.

Mine workers David Vergara and Seth Cure disappeared from their abandoned vehicles en route to a meeting to discuss upcoming labor contract negotiations with their employer, the Drummond Company. Union officials learned last week from sources in Colombia that the Drummond workers were quietly released without publicity on Oct. 17 following intervention by the Red Cross. The identities of their abductors are still unknown.

"While we are gratified that foreign intervention was able to secure the release of Brothers Vergara and Cure, violent repression of trade union rights is still 'business as usual' in Colombia," said USWA President Leo W. Gerard.

"Murders, beatings, 'disappearances' and intimidation are carried out with virtual impunity," he added, noting a recent survey by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which branded Colombia "the most dangerous place on earth for trade union activity."

In a letter to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe shortly after the forceful abduction of Vergara and Cure, Gerard urged quick action by Colombian officials to save the men's lives, noting that their abduction "is tragically reminiscent of the forced capture and subsequent murders of Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler -- all employees of Drummond and officials of SINTRAMIENERGETICA."

Locarno, Orcasita and Soler were murdered in 2001 by paramilitaries who forcefully removed them from buses taking them home from their work at the La Loma Drummond mines.

The murders of Locarno, Orcasita and Soler are the subject of an Alien Tort Claims Act case brought jointly by the USWA and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) on behalf of the families of these deceased workers and on behalf of the their union, SINTRAMIENERGETICA.

The lawsuit, brought against the Drummond Company, alleges that officials of Drummond both aided and abetted the paramilitary forces that murdered Locarno, Orcasita and Soler and conspired with those forces to carry out these murders. The defendants' motion to dismiss this case has been denied, and the Plaintiffs are proceeding to discovery of the merits of this case.

In a related matter, the U.S. District Court hearing the Drummond case last week denied the Defendants' motion to dismiss a new claim, this time brought on behalf of Juan Aguas Romero, a Drummond employee and union official forced, as plaintiffs allege, to go into exile as a result of threats against his life by both Drummond management and paramilitary forces being aided and abetted by Drummond. The Court held that the threats against Mr. Aguas, and his consequent exile, all as alleged by plaintiffs, amounted to torture under both the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victims Protection Act. And, in a victory for labor, the Court held that the very employment relationship between Drummond and Mr. Aguas could establish that, as required by the Torture Victims Protection Act, Drummond had "custody or physical control" over Mr. Aguas when he was threatened.

The ICFTU survey found that 184 trade unionists were murdered in Colombia in 2002. The survey also documented 27 attempted assassinations, 189 death threats against Colombian union officials and members, 9 "disappearances," 139 arbitrary arrests, 27 abductions and 80 trade unionists forced to flee the country into exile.