USW International President Leo W. Gerard has sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter condemning the punishment of workers in Colombia who legally protested the work place death of a colleague at a dangerous mine operated by U.S.-based Drummond.

Here's an exerpt of the letter:

We are writing to express our grave concern about the continued repression of the union and workers at the U.S.-based Drummond mining facility in La Loma, Colombia.

It has come to our attention that Drummond has already fired the entire executive board of the local Drummond union of Sintramienergetica, and has petitioned the Colombian Labor Ministry for permission to fire all of its 4,000 or so unionized workers in retaliation for a recent work stoppage carried out by the union. This work stoppage, which the employees had the right to carry out under Colombian law and ILO Conventions 87 & 98, was carried out to protest the work-place death of miner Dagoberto Clavijo, one of numerous work place deaths in Drummond’s dangerous Colombian coal mines.