Vale Coal Colombia has been violating the Labor Action Plan between the United States and Colombia, a requisite of the pending free trade agreement, through threats and reprisals against unionists in the northern department of Cesar, according to U.S. trade union United Steelworkers (USW). In a letter to Vale Coal Colombia President Zenaldo Olivera, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...USW's International President Leo W. Gerard lambasted recent retaliations against trade unionists at Vale's El Hatillo coal mine in Cesar department, [because] Colombian trade union Sintramienergetica informed…that workers at the mine organized a union in early June but that the company "unlawfully refused to recognize and bargain with that union" and "immediately proceeded to take reprisals against the workers in retaliation for their union support."