UMW calls Massey disaster 'industrial homicide'

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The United Mine Workers union on Tuesday accused Massey Energy of "industrial homicide" and demanded criminal prosecution of mine managers who ran the Upper Big Branch Mine where 29 workers died in an April 2010 explosion.

UMW experts issued their own 154-page report detailing what it called "gross violations" of accepted safety standards and a corporate "culture that demanded production at any cost."

<...>

Roberts said he's not pleased with the progress so far in a federal criminal probe that has produced only charges against a rank-and-file miner who faked foreman's credentials and a security director who is on trial this week, charged with lying to investigators and destroying evidence.

"We've got a security guard who has been indicted, but Don Blankenship can't figure out how to spend all of his money," Roberts said.

Read more: http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201110250214

---

If you want to know why OWS folks are in the streets, W.Va. can show you a lot of reasons.

[Scuba]

1. And the Republicans think mining is over-regulated. n/t

[Kingofalldems]

2. Kick and Rec for justice

[xxqqqzme]

3. Twenty-nine miners

murdered - time for some corporations as people to go on trial for capital crimes. Anyone murdering 29 people would likely be viewed as beyond redemption.

[vets74]

4. Coal is 4,000 times as hazardous as nuclear power.

"Waste disposal" for nukes is a big boogey man.

Waste disposal for coal is air pollution.

Here's what really happens.



And btw: nuclear engineers and plant managers are the most safety-fanatical guys you'll ever meet.

Sorta on the same setup with aeronautical engineers.

Coal mine operations... 30 dead a year in the U.S. and 2,500+ worldwide down in the mines.

[Kolesar]

9. The nuclear engineers in Ohio lie on safety inspection reports to the NRC

google "Davis Besse"

[vets74]

10. Massey sucks.

Lying, miner and above ground air-breather killers.

[happyslug]

5. The leading instution for Mine Safely has always been the UMW, remember this is for a NON-Union mine

Even the Charleston West Virginia Papers report that unpleasant fact:
http://wvgazette.com/News/montcoal/201110200142

While the Mine was non-union (As was the previous worse disaster as Hyden Kentucky in 1970) ) you will NOT find that out from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Big_Branch_Mine_disaster

The 1970 Hyden Mine Disaster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Creek_mine_disaster

Now the 1968 Farmington Coal Mine Disaster was in a UMW mine, but the reaction of the UMW leadership to that disater lead to Yablonski attempt to win the Presidentency of the Union (and his Murder in 1969)

More on the Yalblonski Murder:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Yablonski

John L. Lewis had over seen the switch of the UMW from a marginal player in the Coal Industry to be the dominance force behind coal miners from the Mine Strike of 1927 till his retirement in 1960. Lewis was a life long Republican and preferred Republicans when he had a choice (He backed FDR in 1932 and 1936, but reverted to the GOP in 1940). On the other hand he had no aversion to using Communists and other lefties to get recruits for the UMW (and which made him hated by the Right Wing in the US, even through he was a good Republican). These Lefties show him that the only way to improve the lives of miners was to increase productivity, which Lewis actually supported, even against mine owners who were still making money using older technology (Yes, the UMW was created with being the force behind increase coal productivity per miner from the 1920s till the 1980s and in many ways today).

On the other hand his GOP friends are the people he put in charge and took charge of the UMW after he retired in 1960 (And mistake he lived long enough to see and once yelled at his successor Tony Boyle, that he had cause a mess in the Union and sooner or later he would pay the price for it). Boyle did not take Lewis Advice to clean up the UMW in the Late 1960s, instead Boyle fought any attempt to reform the Union, including ordering the killing of Yabloski. For that Killing, the County of Washington PA (The County south of Allegheny County, the county whose county seat is Pittsburgh, and at that time all the suburbs of Pittsburgh were still in Allegheny County, since that time some of the outer suburbs have moved into Northern Washington County).

I bring up the suburbs of Pittsburgh only to show Washington County was much poorer then much of the rest of the State, and had to bare the sole cost of taking on the Killers of Yabloski, including holding the Trial in a County near Philadelphia when a change of venue was sought and granted.

Anyway, the Washington County Prosecutor worked his way up the chain of Killers till he had the evidence against Tony Boyle. Tony was Convicted and the UMW was able to return to what it had been under Lewis, a pro-mine worker group whose first claim was always mine safety, second was increase income for the miners do to any increase in productivity of the mine.

Like many a group the UMW lost its way for a time, but returned to its roots by the early 1970s and has remain the main force behind mine safety ever since. The UMW ordered many a walk out for safety reasons in the 1970s and 1980s, but then the Mine Owners started to use all the techniques developed since the 1930s to keep their mines union free (i.e. hire people who have to drive to the mine, make sure nothing is close for the miners to get together and talk outside the mine, constantly stores of how the UMW was forcing mine owners to close mines and telling miners if they join a union they would close the mine, and close any mine that was unionized.

Today less then 1/3 of coal mined in the US is done by UMW members (Most of the Coal out west is NON-UMW mines). This has spread to the East using the same techniques, make sure the miners live far apart from each other and the only time they can get together is on Mine Property and use the No Trespassing laws (most such Trespassing Laws were originality passed in the last 1800s as an anti-union technique) to keep union organizers away from the Miners (The desire to hire people with Cars, follows the same policy, people get in their car and drive home, hard for any union organizer to talk to them and by making sure all the miners live in different parts of the rural area the mine is in, hard for the organizer to go from miner to miner).

Yes, the UMW is the best force behind mine safety but that is why mine owners do all they can to keep their mines non-union.

[hootinholler]

6. Quite the opening letter...

The http://www.umwa.org/files/documents/134334-Upper-Big-Branch.pdf">report cover (PDF) is striking!

From the opening letter to the miner's families:

There were many factors that led to this disaster. But there is only one source for all of
them: A rogue corporation, acting without real regard for mine safety and health law and
regulations, that established a physical working environment that can only be described as a
bomb waiting to go off.

And that same company established a working environment where, operating through
subterfuge, fear and intimidation, management prevented any opportunity for the workers to
know the full range of dangerous conditions in the mine, or to effectively protest them even if
they did know.

Federal and West Virginia mine safety and health law is very clear: It was the
responsibility of the mine’s operator, Performance Coal Company, and its parent company,
Massey Energy, to operate the mine in a safe and healthy manner in compliance with laws and
regulations. That did not happen at UBB.

Indeed, the UMWA’s investigation reveals that well-established safety and health laws
were deliberately flouted at UBB, even after the federal and/or state agencies cited the operator
multiple times for breaking the law. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that Massey
simply did not care if it broke the law. The safety of its employees was not worthy of its concern.
The only thing that mattered was getting the coal out.

Much, much more in the report.

[No Elephants]

7. Drop the word "industrial." It's homicide. nt

[Blue_Tires]

8. Didn't the teabaggers turn the EPA townhall meetings in the region into rage parties?