Widow of slain mine union leader speaks out against Alabama's Drummond Co. in Colombia

The widow of a Colombian mine union leader is speaking out against Garry Neil Drummond, Alabama billionaire and CEO of Drummond Co., in a Bloomberg article that outlines the challenges the company is facing in Colombia and its expanding operations in Alabama.

Bloomberg Markets magazine interviewed Nubia Soler, whose husband, Gustavo, was abducted and "found under a pile of banana leaves with two bullet holes in his head" in 2001. Gustavo Soler was union president at a coal mine in Colombia owned by Drummond Co.

Soler tells Bloomberg reporters that her husband had received threats for months before his death and told her to pack up and be ready to leave the area as soon as he arrived home from the union office in Valledupar, Colombia. Gustavo never made it home.

Bloomberg reports that Drummond met with Soler personally and promised to put her adolescent children through school but hasn't followed through.

"He never paid for a pencil,” she tells reporters Anthony Effinger and Matthew Bristow.

The company, current and former executives are currently embroiled in a 600-plaintiff civil suit that alleges the company paid paramilitaries to "terrorize the population along the 120-mile (190-kilometer) rail line from Drummond’s two mines to its port on the Caribbean."

In February, a former Drummond Co. contracter was convicted and sentenced to nearly 38 years as the ringleader of two other union leader murders in 2001.

Drummond officials have denied involvement in the killings.

The Bloomberg article also outlines Drummond holdings in Alabama, particularly Shepherd Bend LLC., which has held a permit to mine on the banks of the Black Warrior River since 2010.

The land -- owned by the University of Alabama, where Drummond is a trustee emeritus -- is just across the river from a Birmingham drinking water intake. UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen said the University has not been approached about mining on the land, according to Bloomberg.

Environmental groups say mining operations would seriously harm water quality. A public hearing of the Alabama Surface Mining Commission was held on July 9 in response to a petition calling for an end to surface coal mining along the Black Warrior River.

A phone message left seeking comment at Drummond's Birmingham offices has not yet been returned.

http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/2013/07/drummond.html

Capitalism IS international terrorism. Home or abroad, nothing will stop them until we do.

A guy I went to high school with (and grade school, for that matter) was a shooter for Drummond, here in Alabama. He worked at a strip mine somewhere in Jefferson Co. (I think). Anyway, he was scared to death of the company. He was a union member, and participated in strikes and other actions, but would just get really weird about how physically vicious Drummond could be. He would tell stories of union guys getting their legs broken and things like that - and he would whisper the stories when he told them. He died a few years ago of lung cancer.

Oh, a "shooter" is what he called the guy who places the charges and blows up shit at a strip mine.

A guy I went to high school with (and grade school, for that matter) was a shooter for Drummond, here in Alabama. He worked at a strip mine somewhere in Jefferson Co. (I think). Anyway, he was scared to death of the company. He was a union member, and participated in strikes and other actions, but would just get really weird about how physically vicious Drummond could be. He would tell stories of union guys getting their legs broken and things like that - and he would whisper the stories when he told them. He died a few years ago of lung cancer.

Oh, a "shooter" is what he called the guy who places the charges and blows up shit at a strip mine.

Hey Dhal, off topic, but do you know where these mine sites are along the Black Warrior? Reason I ask, there is an endangered species endemic to the upper reaches of the river which has been of great interest to me. Channelizing the lower stretch ruined it for them, the impoundments seem to greatly inhibit replacement, they are very sensitive to water quality, such a project would be devastating if in their remaining range. And of course we can only expect some slippery bullshit from this Administration.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/20824/0

Hey Dhal, off topic, but do you know where these mine sites are along the Black Warrior? Reason I ask, there is an endangered species endemic to the upper reaches of the river which has been of great interest to me. Channelizing the lower stretch ruined it for them, the impoundments seem to greatly inhibit replacement, they are very sensitive to water quality, such a project would be devastating if in their remaining range. And of course we can only expect some slippery bullshit from this Administration.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/20824/0

It is northeast of Birmingham, upriver from Bankhead Lake on the Black Warrior. The University of Alabama owns most of the land in question, so a lot of folks think the mining won't happen. I am not so sure; Drummond has hugely deep pockets and the University is (as is most others) a whore...

http://www.sternotherus.de/depressus%202.jpg

Quite the "pretty boy"...

It is northeast of Birmingham, upriver from Bankhead Lake on the Black Warrior. The University of Alabama owns most of the land in question, so a lot of folks think the mining won't happen. I am not so sure; Drummond has hugely deep pockets and the University is (as is most others) a whore...

In capitalism all ya got to aspire to is whoredom, why should they be any different?

Pretty? Most don't think so but I've been fascinated by that family of turtles since a child, and this species does appear to be 'downtrodden', after all.