By Doug Cunningham

In 2001 two Colombian union activist leaders were pulled off a bus near a Drummond Coal mine operation and murdered by paramilitaries just after they had met with a United Steelworkers delegation. The union and families of the slain union leaders are suing Drummond Coal for allegedly paying the paramilitaries to kill the union men. Dan Kovalik is the USW attorney on the civil suit against Drummond coal for these anti-union murders for hire. He was in Colombia when the murders happened. Kovalik has affidavits from witnesses who say Drummond’s CEO in Colombia handed over $200,000 to a paramilitary warlord for the killings of union leaders Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita. The steelworkers have helped some Colombian union activists leave the country after their lives were threatened. The USW wants multinationals operating in Colombia to stop dealing with and hiring paramilitaries for security. And it wants the U.S. government to stop lavishing so much military aid on Colombia until the murders of trade unionists stop.