W Post: Recent deaths of miners point up need for unions

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/04/recent-deaths-of-miners-point-up-need-for-unions/

By Philip Dine

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

All too often, miners are in the news for the wrong reasons — not for helping meet the nation's energy needs but for losing their lives in doing so. And in a recent string of sad events lies a message about why unions in the workplace are as important as ever, despite claims to the contrary from some quarters.

Just this past Thursday, a roof collapse at a mine in Kentucky left two miners dead. This follows last month's explosion at the Massey Mine in West Virginia, which produced 29 fatalities in the deadliest mine tragedy in four decades.

These two incidents differed in many ways but in one aspect they were identical: The mines were nonunion facilities. And this adds to a growing trend. A total of 35 miners already have been killed this year (too high a toll even for this dangerous trade) — none of them a union member.

Think this is an aberration? Of the 18 miners killed last year, only one belonged to the United Mine Workers of America. So, in the past year and a quarter, 53 miners have perished, and 52 of them worked at nonunion operations.

While the UMWA represents 30 percent of the nation's mines, less than 2 percent of those who have perished in the mines in 2009 and 2010 were union members.

FULL story at link.

[jtrockville]

1. Link is to Washington Times, not W Post.