“I have had guys come to me and cry,”...“Grown men cried — because they are scared.”

[babylonsister]

http://crooksandliars.com/node/36555

A Tale of Two Coal Mines: How One Followed The Rules, And The Other One Didn't.
By Susie Madrak Friday Apr 23, 2010 12:00pm

snip//

What happened at the Massey mine in West Virginia is a textbook example of that kind of warped managerial thinking. (Although they made noises about it after the mine explosion, the board of Massey Energy still has no problem with Don Blankenship.) The NY Times today takes a look at two non-union mines (I suppose to prove that you can be non-union, yet still observe safety standards). It's a good read, and I recommend that you check out the rest. But this is the part that made my heart ache for those men:

Like so many other workers across the country, the day-shift miners at Upper Big Branch had an early-morning commute. Every workday, a dozen or so piled into a covered vehicle called a mantrip and caught a half-hour doze as the car followed a track three to four miles into the side of a central Appalachian mountain.

The car would come to a stop in a world where the ceiling was less than seven feet high, the floor puddled with water, and the air cool, breezy and faintly musty. As loud fans helped to move the air, the mining machine would grind back and forth about 1,000 feet across the wall, slicing coal to be carried away by conveyor belt.

Down there, fresh air could not be taken for granted.

Well before this month’s fatal explosion at Upper Big Branch, the country’s worst mine disaster in 40 years, the lack of proper ventilation had been a continuing concern among its miners. The fear of methane building while oxygen dropped preyed on their minds.

“I have had guys come to me and cry,” said the veteran foreman. “Grown men cried — because they are scared.”

But workers in the mine said they did not dare question the company’s safety practices, even when asked to perform a dubious task.

more...

All over America, now more than ever, people are going to work to support their families, thankful that they still have a job and worried about losing it. I guarantee you that thousands of unethical managers and owners across this country are taking advantage of this recession by cutting safety corners and employing fewer people than is safe.

Like that oil rig that just burned. I'm guessing it wasn't a bolt of lightning that caused that disaster. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts it's about what's destroying this country: plain old greed.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Sing it, sister!

You know when jobs are tight that this is exactly what's happening.

Greed.

The dirty bastards doing this to our American workforce need to be strung up.

:mad:

[Stuart G]

2. Greed motivates far to many people. Particularly those who think

they gotta make more money..How much more? No matter how much they get, they want more.

[proudohioan]

12. My personal feeling is.....

that at some point, it's not even about the money; it's about the "game", the power and control.

[Citizen Worker]

17. It is about power and control

For the first time in my working life I'm working in the public sector at a menial brainless job. The management does not manage the work force rather they lord over and control everyone through threat, fear and intimidation. The current Union rep is meek and quiescent despite her "...30 years of fighting for social and economic justice." The Union rep is so inept that she is unable to recognize when HR is negotiating with her one on one. Management openly discourages the filing of grievances and the Union goes along. Labor has never gained a thing when going along with management. We need only look at the "Deal" Labor entered into at the end of WW II to see the source of the current demise of organized Labor. The Deal has been dead for 30 years we just haven't acknowledged it let alone adapt our strategy accordingly. The only time in our history that working people have effected change is when we've been in the streets making demands of capital. Without demands there will be no change.

[proudohioan]

22. Oh, I hear you there.

I used to work in the public sector, too, and it was the same damn story there. And people were so afraid of losing their jobs that they would put up with all kinds of shit, whether it be "illegal" or not. Hell, we actually had one of the worst offenders of intimidation and threat model of MANAGEMENT become UNION PRESIDENT in a very obviously rigged election. WTF??

IMO, the Unions have also become weak, as if they are just as afraid of stepping on toes and rocking the boat as Labor.

Hopefully, we WILL start to acknowledge that the "Deal" has been long dead and we're not gonna put up with this shit anymore. Maybe when enough of us has had to work at at McJob out of sheer desperation??? Cuz really, I'm about to blow.

[Brickbat]

3. It's a broken man who won't stand up for his own safety.

That's another thing unions do. They back you up when you refuse to do something dangerous. It's a beautiful thing.

[glitch]

4. And the safety of his friends (and often family).

Our system is broken, and fixing it is not impossible -- just not MAXIMALLY profitable.

[proudohioan]

13. Or in the spirit of "competitiveness" either.

I swear, if I hear the phrase "in order to be competitive" in reference to outsourcing, layoffs, cutbacks, etc..... I might just BLOW A GASKET!!!!!

[proudohioan]

11. [phone]!!!!!

[B Calm]

26. amen. . .

[donheld]

5. k & R

[Tumbulu]

6. plain old greed all right

and broken workers who are too frightened to stand up for themselves or coworkers.

So so sad.

[Angry Dragon]

7. Let's start throwing CEO's and the boards

in jail and fine the piss out of them. Let them start paying for their greed

[southernyankeebelle]

8. I wonder why these mine owners aren't in jail? If this was China I am sure they would have been

shot by now. This has been going on way to long, enough is enough.

[proudohioan]

9. Plain old greed; you can say THAT again!!!!

I don't know whether to scream in anger or break down crying myself! We have certainly turned into a nation of "sheep" (myself included, as embarrassed as I am to admit that) when it comes to putting up with unacceptable working conditions......too afraid to speak up because we "should be thankful to have a job at all.." . At any rate, it sure seems like employers are loving the fact that we "are down and out" and taking full advantage of it!

My great-grandfather immigrated from Hungary to West Virgina to become a coal miner in the early 20th century. I couldn't help but think of him when this story broke. Although I am a zillion light years away from that particular lifestyle, I am awed by the strength and courage that the coalminers must exhibit to perform their jobs, each and every day, in order for the rest of us to benefit from the use of their production.

Thanks for the OP.

T.

[secondwind]

10. I'VE BEEN SAYING THAT GREED IS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND ALL OUR PROBLEMS FOR YEARS!

[barbtries]

14. that's right

greed will be the ruin of the human race.

[skepticscott]

15. And how many of these people

voted for McCain instead of Obama? And how many voted for GWB twice? How many of them dote over Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck? Will they ever get a clue about where their best interests lie?

[Moosepoop]

16. I don't know.

I do know that whether any or all of "these people" voted for McCain over Obama AND voted twice for GWB, none of them deserved to die in a mine explosion or to have their fellow workers die that way.

[skepticscott]

19. No, they didn't deserve it

but anyone that voted for GWB twice does bear a share of the blame for the kind of regulatory environment that made it more likely. Whether they will see that even now or continue, inexplicably, to vote against their best interests, is another matter.

[Phlem]

18. GREED

Unfortunately, will never rest, never take a day off. I say always be vigil, as these pigs will thief from you one way or another.

Oh.. and greed doesn't give a Sh!t Sack about you.

-p

[Hannah Bell]

20. "greed" = an individual attribute. "capitalism" = a form of economic organization which institu-

tionalizes the endless necessity for more.

i.e. capitalism produces "greed" like apple trees produce apples.

[BlooInBloo]

21. Look! Over there! Obama is taking your freedom!

Worker uprising, averted.

Slick, huh?

[B Calm]

23. Have you heard? He's a black man from Kenya Africa, a Muslim,

a Communist, Socialist, Fascist, Nazi, Liberal, Anti Christ, non US citizen, who pals around with terrorists and is going to pull the plug on my grandma. Did I tell you he's a black man? Am I the only one who can see this?

[BlueIris]

24. So horrifying. nt

[malaise]

25. Too sad

Something's got to give.