The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog
See our home page.(Our old blog on tripod.com is still active, but it is now also appended to the archives of this blog.)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
WORKERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN COLOMBIA AND HOW "WE" FIT INTO THE BIG PICTURE
Veterans Hall (Campus Center)
Tuesday, 1/29/08 @ 7PM
-Drummond, a U.S. coal mining company based in Birmingham, Alabama, has been charged with complicity in the murders of three leaders of a labor union, Victor Orcasita, Valmore Locarno, and Gustavo Soler. This case is currently being heard in U.S. courts.
- We use Drummond coal for energy here in the Salem power plant.
- Come and Discuss how using this coal for energy involves us in a web of Human Rights Violations occurring now in northern Colombia.
Guest Speakers
Dr. Avi Chomsky (History Dept, SSC)
and
Orlando Acosta (Union leader at Drummond Mine Colombia)
-Acosta is visiting the U.S. as a guest of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. He has been meeting with U.S. mine unions (the UMWA) to talk about building international solidarity.
Organized by SGA (Governmental Relations Committee)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
|
Tell-a-friend!Thursday, January 24, 2008
from: Avi Chomsky
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Veterans Hall (Campus Center)
Tuesday, 1/29/08 @ 7PM
-Drummond, a U.S. coal mining company based in Birmingham, Alabama, has been charged with complicity in the murders of three leaders of a labor union, Victor Orcasita, Valmore Locarno, and Gustavo Soler. This case is currently being heard in U.S. courts.
- We use Drummond coal for energy here in the Salem power plant.
- Come and Discuss how using this coal for energy involves us in a web of Human Rights Violations occurring now in northern Colombia.
Guest Speakers
Dr. Avi Chomsky (History Dept, SSC)
and
Orlando Acosta (Union leader at Drummond Mine Colombia)
-Acosta is visiting the U.S. as a guest of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. He has been meeting with U.S. mine unions (the UMWA) to talk about building international solidarity.
Organized by SGA (Governmental Relations Committee)
from: Avi Chomsky
-------------
Colombia: Challenging Corporate Power and State Terror. 11AM-1PM at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St, Boston MA. Join Avi Chomsky, Orlando Acosta, Jeff Crosby and other organizers as they look at events in Colombia, free trade agreements, exploitation of natural resources, suppression of indigenous people, and targeting of workers. Event to be followed by an action in solidarity with Colombia, marking the Global Day of Action. For more information contact Russ at russ@massjwj.net or 617-524-8778.
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North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Thursday, January 17, 2008
I am Orlando Acosta, with a bachelor degree from an industrial technical institute in Santa Marta, Colombia. I graduated in 1979. From 1979 to 1982, I was self-employed in construction and mining; from 1982 to 1986, I worked for the Morrison Canunsen Company that contracts with Exxon. In 1987 I worked with Intercor, a mining company and in 1998, I began to work for Drummond Colombia. I have worked for Drummond for 10 years. I began to participate in the union in 1987 as a union delegate. In 2006 I was elected president of the Cienaga local and currently, I am charged with Internal Affairs Investigation in the national union, Sintraminergética.
My plans are to continue to focus on bettering the working conditions of my union brothers in mining, improve the role of the union in the mine where I work and in the other mines in the country. I am also a mechanical technician and after I retire I would like to work as an instructor in educational projects aimed at the less fortunate classes in society and workers in mining that don’t have these kinds of educational opportunities. I am also studying environmental management in the University of Magdalena with the goal of contributing to the improving the work environment and occupational health and safety in mining.
I am married and have been fortunate in my family and being able to provide them with financial security. I have a 24-year old daughter who graduated as a systems engineer, a twenty-year old son that will soon be entering the university and a twelve-year old son in school. Since 1987 I have been a union leader and we have been able to resolve issues with the company, negotiate terms and conditions that have improved our working conditions and to the company’s progress.
I traveled in June 2007 at the request of lawyers that are handling the case of the union leaders that have been assassinated and disappeared.
Orlando Acosta was selected to participate in this exchange because he is a national leader of workers in the mining sector. He is an open, honest citizen and very well respected by the membership of his organization.
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