SAGO mine was Non-UNION

[The Whiskey Priest]

At some point in this disaster a lie was injected. That lie is that the SAGO mine in West Virginia was union. It was not. Had it been union the chance are that the accident might not have happened? Well, the safety record for union mines vs non-union mines is very good.

Let’s not keep perpetuating a lie that was introduced by those who are working for the bosses and not the employees. It really is pretty calloused when you use a human tragedy like SAGO to further union-busting and enrichment of the owners.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010602247.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06008/634470.stm

[slor]

1. This should be part of the populist message this year...

I think that as more comes out about the violations of this mine, some as recent as this past December, it will be hard to keep pushing the corporate self-regulation angle. I certainly do not think those families are going to allow it. One family member even questioned her religious beliefs after this tragedy on the news.

[ThomWV]

2. Most Of The Small Mines Are

The unions are no where near as strong as they used to be. Most of the small mines are non union and most of the men who work at them either are or at least were at one time Union Miners.

Look, western coal killed the market in West Virginia 10 years ago. No kidding, you could buy coal for $5 a ton there for a while. Small mines shut down all over the place and miners were out of work everywhere. When the price rebounded a lot of the small operations got back on their feet, often with new owners, not that it mattered much, and fed into the spot market. Dig it up, wash it, grade it, mix what you have to and get the shit on a truck before the price drops again. That is the credo. You simply can not do that with union miners.

That dosen't mean that these non union mines are any more or less dangerous than a union mine. They are not. It also doesn't mean that the non union mines pay a lot less. In fact for the most part they pay about the same - the only difference is now they are the only show in town, so to speak.

I know it looks terrible in the press, all the mine violations. What hey haven't told you is what its like in any other mine and how this one stacked up against the best and the worst of them. To be absolutly honest about it, and I know one hell of a lot of coal miners (I have never gone underground and it wouldn't bother me one single bit if I never do), both employed and unemployed, whole and broken, clean lungs and black. This one was no different than all the rest - union or non union.

[ikojo]

11. One of my nephews works in a mine near

Springfield Illinois and it is non union.

[sandnsea]

13. Compare

Pittsburg & Midway - union
Accident Record
http://www.msha.gov/drs/ASP/MineAction.asp

Sago
http://www.msha.gov/drs/ASP/MineAction.asp

Note the number of Sago's recent accidents that are fall of face, rock, back. Now I'm no coal miner, but even I know that that can't be a good sign. That's what I heard a miner saying right after the accident, but he was a pro-union miner and has seemed to have disappeared from the corporate media. Hmmmm.

Sure all mines have problems. But it's the kind of problems and how they're handled, particularly when they're serious, that matters. Miners wouldn't have fought for 100 years for unions if they didn't think they needed an organized voice to represent their interests. It is so sad we're back here again and that it'll take personal tragedy to get the protections back, that they had just a few years ago.

[Ernesto]

3. Duh??

[jarab]

4. I missed the big lie ....

From day one, I was under the obviously correct impression that it was non-union.
Unions in the coal fields are a thing of the past, sadly. Being largely corporate-owned, the first mention of unionizing is met with firm opposition, not the least of which is threat of job loss or closing down that particular mine.
As with other industries, the unions lost control long ago in the coal mines. They priced themselves out of the formula when the coal prices were much lower and periodically fluctuating to extremes.
Right now, energy prices would appear to look good for the UMWA, but I hold no hopes that that union will make a comeback.

...O...

[NNN0LHI]

5. I was under the impression from the "news" that it WAS a union mine n/t

[0007]

9. That's the perception I received from our meida.......

[ret5hd]

6. i must have missed it also...

i also knew from day 1 that it was non-union.

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. How to hell can they get by with that????

Is the UMW so impotent these days??? Jeez.

[Ksec]

8. Yep non union

I saw two workers defending the owners and I cringed at their whoring. They were obviously wingers and scabs

[tlsmith1963]

10. This is Why We Need Unions

If people are wondering why businesses suddenly seem so corrupt, the reason is because unions are in decline. And it's also because Bush is in power. Didn't those Enron employees say in that infamous conference call (the one where they made fun of old people who couldn't pay their electricity bills) that if Bush was elected, they would be able to do anything they wanted? People need to wake up & stop trashing the unions. The corporations are a lot more corrupt than the unions could ever be.

Tammy

[Ksec]

12. I agree but we need to make Unions accountable

Its up to us to keep them from becoming so large and powerful that they lose all sight of what they are and who they work for. I dont want them becoming what we are fighting against and the way to do that is to make them accountable. No mysteries, no book cooking, nothing. If they get out of line we boot them out. I saw the downfall of the Unions coming when the leaders lost sight of who they worked for and who they were there to protect, they got fat and greedy and it hurt us.

Now they seem to have wised up .

[Nikki Stone 1]

14. Chomsky's theory is that Nixon had the Mob infiltrate the Teamsters

I wonder sometimes.