UMWA president lays recent mining deaths at the feet of the Bush administration

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-09-16-0012.html

CASTLEWOOD, Va. – Seventy-one miners died in the nation’s coal mines over the past 20 months because the Bush administration and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration didn’t do their jobs, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said here Saturday.

Roberts called the deaths, starting with the disaster nearly two years ago in Sago, W.Va. and last month’s tragedy in Utah, unnecessary.

He has been critical of MSHA for granting mining permits in what turned out to be deadly mining operations. He is also an outspoken critic of President Bush and his selections to head various regulatory agencies.

"Clearly, these deaths were preventable," Roberts said in an interview. The nation had 24 miners die on the job already this year, he said. Last year’s total was 47.

"It is unacceptable," Roberts told hundreds of union miners and retirees during the 12th annual Freedom Fighter’s Fish Fry at the Russell County Fairgrounds. "We shouldn’t put up with it."

Roberts said the solution was simple.

FULL story at link.