Doing business in a war zone, Drummond got what it might have expected--violence. Since serious production began, Drummond has endured repeated attacks by leftist guerrillas, chiefly against the company's 200-kilometer rail line, which carries 40,000 tons of coal a day from the mine to "Puerto Drummond" on the coast. Still, Drummond's CEO, Garry Neil Drummond, says business is good. "We believe in the future of Colombia," he said recently. As for the violence, "the problem is manageable."

The firm has tried to keep a happy face on its operations, literally: Its logo in Colombia is a caricature of a chubby, smiling coal miner named Drumino, wearing a bright-yellow shirt, blue pants and a bright-blue mining helmet. It's the company's answer, announced Garry Drummond, to the prototypical Colombian coffee-bean picker Juan Valdez. "This is Drumino, coal miner, saying hi," the character says in one company publication. "I am uncomplicated and hard-working, cheerful and optimistic."

In the real world, labor relations have been tense at the best of times. "Relations are not good," says Gustavo Soler. Early on, workers joined a union called Sintramienergetica. Disagreements with management at the mine ran the gamut: salaries, working conditions, health coverage, schedules and even food. Hardly gourmet diners, the miners, who believed that the man contracted to provide meals was a paramilitary sympathizer, say he prepared inedible slop. Union leaders also say they resented the lie detector tests some were forced to take, with questions like "Are you supporting the guerrillas?"

Even more ominous were the repeated anonymous threats against the labor leaders' lives. There was a rebel attack against the company's rail line in April 2000. "That was when the fliers started to appear," Soler says. The anonymous fliers began by extolling the coal mine. "The multinational Drummond is a source of income and growth for our city, and for that reason it has become like our heritage." "No al Syndicalismo guerrillero" they read. "No to the guerrilla Union."

Last September, FARC attacked Drummond's rail line again, blowing up a locomotive and taking three employees hostage. The threats to the union escalated. Another anonymous flier found its way around town: "We know that the heads of the union have a clear nexus with the subversion.... down with the guerrilla union. down with the subversion that is against investment in the country."

There is no evidence that the union had anything to do with attacks against the company, but being accused of sympathizing with guerrillas in para country is like being called a government witness in a mob social club. So it is not hard to imagine the fear the union leadership lived with at that point. In fact, there's virtually a record of it: letters the union wrote to anyone they thought would help. On September 28, union president Locarno wrote to Drummond's human resources department. His letter, on union stationery with a little drawing of a miner's helmet crossed by a hammer and shovel, cited the dangers of traveling and the anonymous pamphlets. He asked for permission for the union heads to stay, between twelve-hour shifts, in the relative safety of the mine. "We hope we can count on your collaboration and your concurrence for the protection of our lives."

Drummond turned him down flat. On October 6, the company replied, assuring Locarno that "the company has made the appropriate authorities aware of this situation," but regretfully letting him know that spending the night at the facility would not be permitted. The union leaders also wrote to the Colombian government asserting that the pamphlets are "putting our lives in danger." They asked for help under a special government program designed to protect union leaders. Interior Department officials refused the request, issuing a finding this past February that the risk was "bajo-medio"--low to medium.

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