U.S. mining company paid terrorists to kill union leaders!

[Life_Long_Dem!]

A federal lawsuit alleges the Drummond Company paid millions of dollars to a Colombian paramilitary terrorist group that while acting as paid "security" was responsible for the deaths of 67 people in a plot to disrupt union activities at the company's South American coal mining and railway operations.
The civil lawsuit accuses Drummond of paying the right-wing United Self Defense Forces of Colombia to protect their business interests in the Cesar and Magdalena provinces of Colombia, and to terrorize and murder innocent residents in the region who they perceived as sympathetic to leftist guerilla groups and supportive of local union organizations. The suit describes in detail a meeting between Drummond and AUC representatives during which the company allegedly ordered the execution of two union leaders.

The Florida-based law firm of Conrad & Scherer LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of 252 plaintiffs who are relatives of the 67 victims, including 63 men and four women. Their names are withheld from publication to prevent reprisals against them, said attorney Terry Collingsworth. The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Western Division by Collingsworth, Conrad & Scherer founding partner William R. Scherer and Garve W. Ivey, Jr. of the Jasper, Alabama-based, Ivey Law Firm.

"The 60-page complaint outlines allegation after allegation of brutality, describing how hundreds of men, women and children were terrorized in their homes, on their way to and from work, and often murdered by AUC paramilitaries acting on behalf of Drummond," said attorney Collingsworth. "These are innocent people being killed in or near their homes or kidnapped to never to return home, their spouses and children being beaten and tied up, and people being pulled off buses and summarily executed on the spot."

DC Special Interests Examiner: Lawsuit alleges U.S. mining company paid Colombian paramilitary group to execute union leaders

 

[Old Rocks]

Hardly a new thing. And the companies would love to be able to do the same here again. I have visited this site, as should every working man that values his ability to bargain for a fair wage.

The Ludlow massacre refers to the violent deaths of 20 people, 11 of them children, during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the on April 20, 1914. These deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard. Two women, eleven children, six miners and union officials and one National Guardsman were killed. In response, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard.

This was the bloodiest event in the 14-month 1913-1914 southern Colorado Coal Strike. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three biggest mining companies were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF). Ludlow, located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument, in memory of the striking miners and their families who died that day.

Wapedia - Wiki: Ludlow massacre

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Last I checked one is INNOCENT until proven guilty. Also last I checked, in this country, law suits to extort millions from companies are an every day occurrence.

 

[Annie]

The lawsuit is CIVIL.

Colombians sue coal firm - Business - MiamiHerald.com

Posted on Friday, 05.29.09

Colombians sue coal firm

Relatives of dozens of slain Colombians have sued a U.S.-based coal company in federal court in Alabama, accusing the firm of making millions of dollars in payments to a paramilitary group that sowed terror in the South American country.

The suit said 67 victims of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, also known as AUC, included labor activists, farmworkers and others. It claimed the right-wing group received payments from operatives for Drummond Co. to assassinate top union leaders and protect the company's coal mine and railroad in Colombia.

A similar lawsuit ended in 2007 with a verdict for Drummond, which has repeatedly denied any connection with the Colombian violence.

Now, the bio of the author of the Examiner 'article':

DC Special Interests Examiner: Lawsuit alleges U.S. mining company paid Colombian paramilitary group to execute union leaders

Find out more about Ron:

Ron Moore is a freelance writer living in Silver Spring, Maryland with decades of service in the grassroots community as a local union president, union organizer, national AFL-CIO staff, and writer for the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

And the A. Philip Randolph Institute:

A. Philip Randolph Institute

What's the lead on page: ACORN like actions to get the vote out last fall.

Some source, LOL! Imagine if you could find these sort of connections with sources used by conservatives, what a field day that would be!

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-union11-2009mar11,0,1928028.story

Finances of charity run by SEIU official scrutinized
The union officer gets more from the nonprofit, run from his home, than from his full-time San Francisco transit job. He's also paid for use of the home and his son is on the charity payroll.
By Paul Pringle

March 11, 2009

A Bay Area officer of the scandal-clouded Service Employees International Union has collected double salaries, one as a city transit worker and the other from a charity that receives much of its funding from the labor organization and corporate interests, records show.

In addition, the nonprofit paid more than $16,000 in rent for the officer's home in 2007, the most recent year for which the charity's tax return is available, according to his son, who is also on the charity's payroll.

James Bryant, who earned just under $68,000 as a transit station agent in 2007, received about $117,000 that year as president of the San Francisco chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, according to the tax return and the city's Municipal Transportation Agency. He was also paid or reimbursed about $10,000 as an executive board member for SEIU Local 1021, whose political committee he chairs, the union's financial statements show.

The nonprofit's tax-exempt purpose is to promote civil rights, voter education and the interests of black workers. Its biggest contributors include Pacific Gas & Electric and other corporate benefactors that have enlisted it to campaign for or against ballot initiatives dealing with energy and land development.

Nonprofit watchdogs say those relationships raise questions of whether the institute is straying from its charitable mission. The institute's corporate supporters say the nonprofit's campaign work helped preserve funding for social programs and supported the construction of affordable housing.

Bryant, who is in his 50s, is the latest of several SEIU California officers whose financial practices have come under scrutiny. He declined to be interviewed.....

 

[editec]

Being a union organizer in third world nation is dangerous business today, just as it was dangerous business in the USA a century ago.


That's exactly why American corporations enjoy moving there to produce their goods.

That is also why FREE TRADE is not only a bad idea for our economy but an immoral policy as well.

 

[garyd]

So you'd rather they had no jobs at all?

 

[Old Rocks]

So you'd rather they had no jobs at all?

I would rather that they enjoyed the protection of law that we do. And untill there are workplace safety regulations and environmental regulations there should be stiff tariffs on anything imported from that nation.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

Nothing new here.

 

[brownlou]

Ludlow massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some things never change.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

A federal lawsuit alleges...

LOL... Wow that's powerful alleging goin on down there...

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

Being a union organizer in third world nation is dangerous business today, just as it was dangerous business in the USA a century ago.


That's exactly why American corporations enjoy moving there to produce their goods.

That is also why FREE TRADE is not only a bad idea for our economy but an immoral policy as well.

It's no more dangerous than would be the case if someone tried to unionize one of my shops...

What I love about the left is how they feel they have a RIGHT to coerce industries into collective bargaining... but if coercion goes the other way... WELL THAT'S A VIOLATION OF SOMEONE'S RIGHTS!

ROFL... Leftists...

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Being a union organizer in third world nation is dangerous business today, just as it was dangerous business in the USA a century ago.


That's exactly why American corporations enjoy moving there to produce their goods.

That is also why FREE TRADE is not only a bad idea for our economy but an immoral policy as well.

It's no more dangerous than would be the case if someone tried to unionize one of my shops...

What I love about the left is how they feel they have a RIGHT to coerce industries into collective bargaining... but if coercion goes the other way... WELL THAT'S A VIOLATION OF SOMEONE'S RIGHTS!

ROFL... Leftists...

Usual leftoid thinking. And why? Because once again the left believes any ends justify THEIR means, but if anyone else does it, it is illegal, immoral or just plain wrong. They are allowed cause, well, they just know what's best for all us dumb people, after all.

 

[brewerboy]

Hardly a new thing. And the companies would love to be able to do the same here again. I have visited this site, as should every working man that values his ability to bargain for a fair wage.

The Ludlow massacre refers to the violent deaths of 20 people, 11 of them children, during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the on April 20, 1914. These deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard. Two women, eleven children, six miners and union officials and one National Guardsman were killed. In response, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard.

This was the bloodiest event in the 14-month 1913-1914 southern Colorado Coal Strike. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three biggest mining companies were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF). Ludlow, located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument, in memory of the striking miners and their families who died that day.

Wapedia - Wiki: Ludlow massacre

If I remember my history correct, wasnt it shit like this that brought the term "redneck" to light?

I wanna say a West Virginia mining community was being terrorized by the companies big wigs and their paid thugs, until the Union workers fought back using physical means.

The pro-union guys tied red bandannas around their necks to identify each other when the shit hit the proverbial fan.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

Last I checked one is INNOCENT until proven guilty.

Guilty of what? Its a civil lawsuit.

Also last I checked, in this country, law suits to extort millions from companies are an every day occurrence.

oh yeah? Name one.