Drummond Writes Secretary of State Clinton

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Drummond Co. President Garry Neil Drummond has filed a protest with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the United Steelworkers union, which earlier petitioned her to probe working conditions at the company's mine in Colombia, where the latest fatality happened last week.

The flap stems from a letter the Steelworkers sent to Clinton in September, objecting to treatment of workers at the Pribbenow Mine that Drummond operates in South America. That letter stated the company planned to fire all 4,000 union-affiliated workers at the mine near La Loma, and that Clinton should investigate.

Now, the Steelworkers have backed off the assertion that the company plans to fire all union workers. The union doesn't represent the Colombian miners, but does represent thousands of miners in North America and supports overseas miners as part of an international outreach program. And the Steelworkers still say there needs to be more attention to detail at Drummond's Colombian mine.

The controversy has focused international attention on the 25,000-acre Pribbenow Mine, a surface operation that opened during the 1990s as Drummond's profitably recoverable Alabama coal dwindled.

The mine produces about 24 million tons a year and pays workers far above the national minimum wage. The population of La Loma has more than doubled in recent years, and investment is booming as Drummond works to develop a second mine in the area.

Dozens of Alabamians work in Colombia on rotating shifts, flying back and forth on the company's private jets for days or weeks at a time.

"Drummond will continue to use all legal means to assure that neither its work force nor the public continues to be misinformed and that the goodwill and name of the company is preserved," Garry Neil Drummond told Clinton in a letter dated Nov. 4.

Drummond Co. was formed in Walker County by the current president's father, who started the billion-dollar company with a mule and a wagon. The main street in La Loma is named for him, Heman Drummond.