State troopers stand watch at the entrance to the Massey Energy Co.’s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine Thursday, April 8, 2010, in Montcoal, W.Va. Rescue crews began working their way by rail car and on foot through a West Virginia coal mine early Thursday in search of four miners missing since a blast killed 25 colleagues in the worst U.S. mine disaster in more than two decades. (AP Photo/Bob Bird)
This statement just in:
As rescue efforts continue at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh Co., W. Va., the safety history at that mine and of Massey Energy overall is “troubling and demands a tough investigation” moving forward, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts said today.
“Our hearts and prayers remain with the families of those who lost loved ones at this mine,” Roberts said. “Many of those lost were family, friends and neighbors of our members, and some were even past members of our union.
“This is and will remain a very personal tragedy for those of us from that part of the country for the rest of our lives, and for generations to follow,” Roberts said. “I personally knew three of the victims – I grew up with their families.
“As I said previously, at times like these we are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields,” Roberts said. “We suffer and grieve along with the families. And as we do, we cannot ignore the very troubling realities of what happened in that mine in the days and weeks leading up to the disaster. Nor can we ignore the grim statistics that are associated with Massey and the mines under its control.”
Roberts said that a UMWA Health and Safety Department review of fatalities at coal mines since 2000 showed that, prior to the Upper Big Branch disaster, 20 people had been killed at mines operated by Massey, its subsidiaries or subcontractors.
“Every year, like clockwork, at least one person has been killed since 2000 on the property of Massey or one of its subsidiaries,” Roberts said. “With those already known to be dead at Upper Big Branch, it’s now up to 45 people in the past 11 years, and four more missing at this point. No other coal operator even comes close to that fatality rate during that time frame. This demands a serious and immediate investigation by MSHA and by Congress.”
Roberts noted that in a press conference yesterday, Kevin Stricklin of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) observed, “It’s quite evident something went very wrong here.” Stricklin went on to say that “all explosions are preventable.”
“Mine safety laws and regulations have progressed to the point where, when followed and properly enforced, they should prevent disasters like this one at Upper Big Branch from happening,” Roberts said. “Clearly that was not the case here. The mine had a continuing history of safety violations, including several of a very serious nature.”
However, MSHA has been prevented from taking more aggressive action at this mine because the operator has contested over 30 percent of the violations, leaving them in limbo until adjudicated by the Federal Mine Health and Safety Review Commission (FMHSRC). “That means no pattern of violations can be readily established at this mine, leaving MSHA without the ability to use stronger enforcement powers,” Roberts said.
“This is a problem that extends beyond Massey Energy mines,” Roberts said. “There is a huge backlog of contested cases before the FMHSRC. These cases aren’t just clogging up the system, they’re leading to a reduced ability to strictly enforce mine safety and health laws and regulations at mines throughout the nation.”
“I’ve seen where Massey’s CEO, Don Blankenship, equates criticizing his or Massey’s safety record to being against coal and coal jobs,” Roberts said. “Well, on behalf of the tens of thousands of UMWA members and their families who depend on coal and coal jobs, as well as the tens of thousands of retirees and widows who depend on pensions and health care benefits paid for by coal, I’m here to tell Don that’s bull.
“No one wants a secure future for coal and coal jobs any more than I and our members do,” Roberts said. “We believe that future is real and that’s why we’re fighting for it every day in Congress, in the coalfields and everywhere else we can. But we also believe that the miners who work in those jobs ought to be able to come home at the end of their shift.”
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Ken,
Given Mr. Roberts’ heartfelt statements, some deeper context may be in order. The UMWA has been begging the federal government to pay attention to what happens in America’s coal mines for decades.
Here’s a clip of John L. Lewis testifying before the Senate of the United States in 1952: http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/gordonskene/word-two-john-l-lewis-about-mine-safet
As I listened to it, I was saddened by how many of Lewis’ concerns of more than a half-century ago persist in the second decade of the 21st century.
I grew up in rural wv. My dad spent most of his mining years fighting for the union only to be let down by its current leaders. The leaders gave away his retirement and 100′s of other co-workers retirement to massey at the sidney kentucky location. Both umwa and massey treated them like cattle. I believe the best solution is to bring in a federal entity to audit the business practices of massey and umwa. It shouldn’t taking massive loss of life to prompt action. These men should have been protected years ago. Prayers be with the family.
Just a few mnutes ago, UMWA chairman Cecil Roberts was on the MSNBC show. Ed Scuilts was the host. Roberts told him Don Blankenship went into the mine, and told the men he would shut down the mine if they voted for union representation. This resulted in a tie vote, and the union lost.
No doubt the union would have kept the mine safer to work in. Now nobody can work the mine.
Does no one remember Farmington 9 or Walter Resources? 78 dead in farmington 9, 13 dead at Walter Resources. All Union brothers of Mr Roberts. What about Federal 2? Massive ammounts of gas behind sealed areas and still the union went inside. There is a myth about union mines being safer! Just ask my father, but yell loud because his grave is a long way from charleston.
The union kicked us coalminers under the bus way back. When they let the companies take over the financing of the health and retirement funds and then when you let the independent contractors come in and bring their employees “on their panel”, you laid it into us. Why should we trust you anymore than we do the companies or “The Chairman” as he is called by the true Massey believers. We just want to raise our families and stay in WV. We are clannish we want to stay near our loving families. Mr. B cares about the safety of the miners in his coal mines because it costs his company on average 1 million dollars per fatality. We miners are finally worth more than mules. Us coalminers don’t trust any of you the unions, the company, or the media. The only ones we trust are the ones we work with everyday our fellow coalminers.
you should check the statistics closely. union mines are safer by far than non union. as for the rest of it unions can only stem the tide so far. with out members AND their support everybody loses.
The big difference in safety conditions in union mines are: If a foreman orders you to work in an unsafe area, you can contest his order. If this happens in a non union mine, the worker can be fired.
I’d like to know why Massey Energy has pulled all their TV ads off the air during the evening news hour,could it possibly be what they praise about their company isn’t true at all!!
can anyone provide some citation or a link to data comparing mine safety in union vs non-union mines?
i’ve read on another blog that this was brought up at dailykos and then someone actually crunched the numbers and turns out that there is no significant difference. but that is far less than hearsay, even, without the actual data. worth validating, or rejecting, i think.
Ken,
I think from where we presently stand one thing is clear: the UMWA, flawed and crippled though it presently is (for reasons cited above, as well as others) DOES actively speak to issues regarding miner safety.
The same simply cannot be said of Massey. When is the last time Don Blankenship said anything about safety without immediately saying something about productivity or regulations? When have you ever heard Blankenship praise the regulations that protect the lives of miners?
Here’s a good example of typical DonSpeak: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/08/don-blankenship-in-2009-its-very-difficult-to-obey-nonsensical-safety-rules/ You’ll note that Don blames moves toward greater safety as an illogical, emotional response of people horrified by coal mine deaths. That Don can view it that was says a lot more about himself than about the regulations. There’s a word for folks who think like that, and it’s not even dirty. It’s contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Edition. It’s an interesting read.
What Don (and others like him such as Bob Murray) have done is to make abundantly clear that “voluntary compliance” is a pipedream held only in the minds of those who give a wink-and-nod to the realities inside non-union operations.
The fact is, many of the very same things John L. Lewis decried to a generally useless Senate in 1952 are the same things that plague underground miners today. Then, as now, ONLY the UMWA was talking about it.
I had a father and a grandfather because of the efforts of people like John L. Lewis. I literally owe my corporeal existence to him. Can the same be said of Blankenship? Given the present realities, I think it’s exactly the opposite.
Jason:
There is no one place where those statistics exist — MSHA doesn’t keep data by union/nonunion status. But, I have created the following chart:
U.S. Coal Fatalites, 2003 – 2009
Total Union Union
Year Total Union % of fatalities Density*
2003 30 6 20% 31%
2004 28 5 18% 29%
2005 22 4 18% 28%
2006 47 6 13% 26%
2007 33 3 9% 24%
2008 30 3 10% 23%
2009 18 1 6% N/A
Totals 208 28 13% 26.8%
* – sources: Fatalities from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, union density from U.S. Energy Information Agency Annual Coal Reports
I will try to redo so that it makes sense.
To compare union vs nonunion safety statistics one needs to know what the union representation rates are. I can’t make a readable chart on this, so I’ll just write it out. If you look at the chart above, you can kind of follow along. The most important numbers are the two percentages at the end of each year’s row:
In 2003, there were 30 fatalities in US coal mines, 6 were union members. That’s 20% of all fatalities. Unions represented 31% of miners in 2003 (the UMWA represents most but not all coal miners in the US who are in unions).
2004-28 fatalities, 5 were union members. That’s 18% of all fatals, unions represented 29% of miners that year.
2005 – 22 fatalities, 4 were union members. That’s 18% of all fatals, Unions represented 28% of miners.
2006 – 47 fatalities, 6 union members. Union fatals were 13%, unions represented 26% of all miners.
2007 – 33 fatalities, 3 union members. Union fatals were 9% of all fatals, unions represented 24% of all miners.
2008 — 30 fatalities, 3 union members. Union fatals were 10% of all fatals, unions represented 23% of all miners.
2009 – 18 fatalities, 1 union member. Union fatals were 6% of all fatals, and the EIA has not yet published the union representation numbers.
These statistics are pretty clear to me. In none of these recent years does the percentage of fatalities come close to the union representation rate. If there were no difference between union and nonunion representation, then one would assume the union percentage of fatalities would be pretty much the same as the overall union representation rate. That’s just not the case, and the gap is widening over the last several years.
When a violation is confirmed after being contested, the fine should be multiplied by 10 or more.
Mr Smith thanks for that. I read on hippiekiller that this had been discussed on dailykos but i don’t read that. if i run into other discussions about this i’ll post here. from the context of that offhand referenced i had supposed that the numbers in question compared accident or fatality rates between mines with and without union representation. considering that mines with union representation may not be all union members makes that a more complicated question. thanks again!
The union mines are a lot safer than non union coalmines in a union mine you can say i am not working in unsafe conditions an not fear retalliation by your employer but in a non union mine if you refuse to work in a dangerous condition all you can do is get your lunch bucket an get ready for a perminate ride outside