As we watch this unfolding horror in West Virginia, please keep in mind .....

[Stinky The Clown]

.... that if it were not for unions, this would be a commonplace event.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Can you say...'China'?

[LiberalLoner]

2. Amen. I wish people realized how important unions are and how they have helped all of us who

work for a living.

[Brickbat]

3. Exactly.

The sad thing is, those safety provisions mean fuck-all if you have no one to enforce them. A union jobsite can help monitor and call the employer out when it's dangerous. Joe Main can hopefully get MSHA off its ass and shutting these motherfuckers down.

ETA: I don't mean close the company; I mean enforce the fucking law.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Absolutely right, STC. No chance in hell the owners would EVER have made any concessions

to even the slightest gesture to protect the mine workers WITHOUT the bloody struggle leading to modern safety standards.

Life is cheaper to these jerks, as history has taught us, than sacrificing one single dollar's profit.

Thank you for your truthful observations.

Rec.

[kestrel91316]

5. Got that right, Stinky!

[underpants]

6. Most of the mines in WV are now non-union (from what I heard earlier)

Massey Energy
Don Blankenship

look them up. this is their mine.

oh and Blair Mountain - US Army attacks citizens on behalf of the mine companies

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Its true that unions have been busted. But their legacy is still in effect ....... so far.

That legacy is mine safety laws. That legacy is a federal agency to oversee fuckwads like Massey/Blankenship. True enough, the legacy is being slowly eroded. But it is still a long, long way better than it was before unions.

This is the worst mine disaster in at least 20 years. Maybe it will spur some action from the feds.

Or not.

I find my Hope-O-Meter running close to empty when I con sider the feds doing anything for We The People.

[senseandsensibility]

7. Absolutely

Many jobs would be dangerous or even life threatening without unions.

[tinkerbell41]

8. Everyone needs to realize this.

They take what they can get, don't give a hoot about you or your family.The only reason the Union bashing continues is because with them WE win.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

9. So true!

And that's why Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, has waged a lifelong war to break the UMWA.

And he did it. The UMWA is little more than a shadow of its former self.

These Massey workers are among the most abused in the country, and they dare not unionize for fear of retaliation from Blankenship and the UMWA dare not fight back, lest Blankenship crush them more than he already has.