Steelworkers Join Los Angeles Activists in Demanding Occidental Petroleum Stop its Complicity of Hum

[Judi Lynn]

Steelworkers Join Los Angeles Activists in Demanding Occidental Petroleum Stop its Complicity of Human Rights Abuses in Colombia

Colombia Free Trade Agreement Should Not be Passed Until Perpetrators
of Killings Against Activists are Brought to Justice

LOS ANGELES, July 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Members of the United
Steelworkers (USW), labor and community activists demonstrated in front of
Occidental Petroleum headquarters today in support of a people's tribunal
in Bogota, Colombia that is hearing evidence of murders and death threats
against union activists involving the company's alleged approval.

"Corporations that operate in areas of conflict should not contribute
wittingly or unwittingly to human rights abuses," said USW District 12
Director Terry Bonds. "Occidental Petroleum should ensure human rights
violations are not being committed by state agents or their proxies
operating to defend the company's interests."

Bonds represents USW members in California, including about 80 workers
employed at Occidental Petroleum in Long Beach.

Demonstrators chanted slogans like "Enough Violence, Basta Con La
Violencia," and held picket signs. They collected signatures for a petition
to Congress and delivered a letter to Dr. Ray R. Irani, chairman, president
and CEO of Occidental Petroleum.

In the letter, the United Steelworkers Union (USW) expressed concern
over Occidental's complicity in human rights abuses in Colombia. The union
urged the company to "come clean" about the full extent of its involvement
in the Dec. 13, 1998 bombing of Santo Domingo and expressed concern about
its reported financial and logistical support for the Colombian 18th Army
Brigade, which has committed numerous human rights abuses including the
August 2004 murder of three union leaders. There is evidence the Brigade,
which helps protect the company's Cano Limon oil pipeline, continues to aid
and abet the paramilitary groups.

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