Union Leader Claims Threats by Drummond

Union Leader Claims Threats by Drummond
By JAY REEVES 07.12.07, 3:30 PM ET

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/12/ap3909189.html

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -

A mining union official testified Thursday that the head of Drummond coal in Colombia threatened him after the killings of three labor leaders whose families blame the company for the murders.

Juan Aguas Romero, the education secretary for two unions in the South American country, testified in the second day of a civil lawsuit accusing Drummond Ltd. of having paramilitary gunmen kill the three men.

Drummond, a privately owned company based in Alabama, calls the slayings tragic but denies any involvement with the murders or with militias in Colombia.

Aguas said Augusto Jimenez, president of Drummond's operations in Colombia, made threatening comments during meetings that followed the gunshot killings of two union leaders in 2001 and the slaying of a third union official months later.

Once, Aguas said, Jimenez told him that a "fish that swims with its mouth opens soon dies." A former Drummond employee previously testified that Jimenez made a similar comment to him in a private discussion about union negotiations.

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