U.S. Senators Push Bush Mining Official To Implement New Safety Systems Sooner

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/6766

U.S. Senators Push Bush Mining Official To Implement New Safety Systems Sooner

Hearings began in the U.S. Senate this week concerning that Utah mine collapse that trapped six miners and killed three rescue workers.. Jesse Russell reports.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin held a hearing this week investigating the tragedy in Utah where six miners were lost to a mine collapse and three rescue workers died during a rescue attempt. Harkin, the son of an Iowa coal miner, questioned why hearings concerning mine tragedies continue “more than 18 months since the hearing after Sago” mine collapse in West Virginia where 13 miners lost their lives. Laws passed after Sago requires the Mine Safety and Health Administration to improve the way miners and the surface controllers communicate by 2009. During this first of what is expected to be many hearings following the Utah collapse Harkin and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter pressured MSHA chief Richard Stickler work harder on implementing those systems sooner.

[Olney Blue]

1. Why do people have to die before people act?