HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
AP. 16 April 2002. Colombian Union Leader Claims Companies Routinely Hire Paramilitaries. MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Hiring paramilitary groups to attack and threaten union leaders is a common practice by foreign companies operating in Colombia, a union activist from the country said Tuesday. Ligia Ines Alzate, a longtime labor activist and General Secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions for the state of Antioquia, spoke to groups in Mobile and Montgomery on Tuesday. "That is a strategy that is used," Alzate said through an interpreter in an interview prior to her talk in Montgomery. Alzate said she scheduled talks in Alabama because a Colombian union, Sintramienergetica, has sued Birmingham-based Drummond Co. in federal court. The lawsuit claims that Drummond hired hit men to kidnap, torture and murder three men last year for their ties to the union that represents Drummond workers. Alzate said many foreign multinational companies hire paramilitary groups to target union leaders during contract negotiations or when restless workers protest company practices. "These large companies need people off of the land they are developing and they need to quiet protesters," said Alzate through an interpreter. Sandra Alvarez is program director with Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based group working to seek a peaceful end to the conflict in Colombia. Alvarez said she visited union workers at the Drummond mines and the workers say they are still "scared to death." Before traveling to Alabama, Alzate spoke in Florida, where Sinaltrainal, a union representing 2,300 food workers, sued Coca-Cola Co. The union alleges that the company's Colombian bottlers work with death squads to kill, threaten and intimidate plant workers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
