Arch Coal hasn’t responded to my requests for comment about what’s going on down at Blair Mountain, but they did apparently provide a statement to the folks at E & E’s Greenwire … here’s what is being reported by that subscription-only publication:
Arch spokeswoman Kim Link dismissed the concerns that mining activity is imminent.
“We are not currently conducting any mining-related activities in the area in question,” she wrote in an email, “and we have no immediate plans to do so.”
Well, the folks at the Sierra Club just issued a press release headlined, “Is Arch Coal About to Mine Historic Blair Mountain? Local and National Groups Rally to Townspeople’s Defense.” They say:
Residents of Blair, West Virginia have noticed increased activity from mining company Arch Coal around the historic Blair Mountain Battlefield site. Members of the town have become more and more concerned about Arch’s activities and fear they are moving forward with plans to mine the Blair Battlefield site. There have been reports of proposed buy outs of resident’s property, increasing industrial activity in the area and other preparations indicative of a move towards mining operations on the battlefield itself. Blair Mountain is the site of the largest civil insurrection in American history since the Civil War. In 1921 more than 10,000 coal miners fought forces backed by mining interests in an attempt to organize unions in Logan and Mingo County.
It’s interesting … because nearly a dozen people I’ve talked to today — including some with close ties to the Sierra Club and other environmental groups — have told me when I asked that they don’t really know what’s going on. Even local folks who are watching developments very closely aren’t sure that the increased activity is any indication that strip-mining of the site is imminent. (One even told me it’s possible that the movement is in preparation for planned longwall mining underground).
I first heard about this yesterday from filmmaker-activist Mari-Lynn Evans, who told me to get more information from retired miner-activist Joe Stanley. And Joe told me I should really talk to Brandon Nida, the executive director of Friends of Blair Mountain. I talked to Brandon today, and what he told me he’s witnessed himself and heard from residents was pretty close to what the Sierra Club recounted in its press release:
There’s been a huge amount of activity in Blair, with equipment and logging trucks. It does look like Arch is going to be doing something.
My thoughts today are with the families of Don Bragg and Elvis Hatfield, the two coal miners who died six years ago in that terrible fire at Massey Energy’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W.Va.
As I wrote a year ago on this date, readers will recall that Massey Energy’s Aracoma Coal Co. pleaded guilty to criminal mine safety violations that led to their deaths, and paid a record $2.5 million in criminal fines and $1.7 million in civil penalties. Five Massey foreman also pleaded guilty to criminal charges, but none of them went to jail.
But the U.S. Department of Justice and then-U.S. Attorney Chuck Miller agreed to a plea deal with Aracoma Coal in which the government agreed not to prosecute any employees or officers of the corporate parent, Massey Energy. This deal drew much criticism from the widows of Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hatfield.
Prosecutors said they had no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by Massey or its officers or employees, but lawyers for the families wondered about a key memo that indicated then-Massey CEO Don Blankenship knew about the poor condition of the conveyor belts at Aracoma and knew mine officials were not accurately reporting those conditions on mine safety reports.
In last year’s anniversary post, I questioned whether the criminal investigation of the deaths of 29 more Massey miners at the company’s Upper Big Branch Mine would end any differently:
What will come of this new criminal investigation? Will prosecutors bring charges against a few mid-level foremen, or will they find and try to punish wrongdoing by anyone further up the corporate ladder?
Over the last few months, we’ve seen a flurry of action on Upper Big Branch. In late October, the mine’s longtime security director, Hughie Elbert Stover, was convicted of two felonies, with a jury finding that he lied to investigators and tried to destroy evidence about Massey’s habit of warning underground workers of impending safety inspections — a practice that federal inspectors say played a major role in the April 5, 2010, disaster. Stover faces up to 25 years in prison. Already, a former Massey miner had pleaded guilty to faking foreman’s credentials while he spent almost two years performing safety inspections for the company at Upper Big Branch. While there’s no direct evidence the actions of Thomas Harrah played any role in the disaster, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger sentenced Harrah to 10 months in prison.
Then in December, as the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration was preparing to issue the report of its investigation into Upper Big Branch, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that his office had reached a landmark deal with Alpha Natural Resources, which bought Massey last June. Alpha would agree to spend tens of millions of dollars on mine safety improvements, and Goodwin would agree not to bring any criminal charges against the company.
And just last week, the remaining families of the Upper Big Branch miners settled their wrongful death cases, agreeing to a deal through with Alpha will pay them undisclosed amounts of money to resolve those cases and allow the company to, essentially, turn the page on the disaster it inherited from Massey CEO Don Blankenship.
The families have made it clear that they want justice — not just money. As one of the family lawyers, Tim Bailey, told me:
Compensation is one thing, but justice is another. Based on what happened at this mine, there is not going to be justice until some people are indicted and some people go to jail.
Will more people go to jail? Well, we know that the Alpha-Justice Department deal does not include language to protect any individual officers, agents or employees of Massey from prosecution … and U.S. Attorney Goodwin has said his office has uncovered other crimes for which the appropriate individuals have not yet been charged. The question is — will Goodwin and his staff find a way to bring charges against these individuals and to make those charges stick? A more cynical person that I might also ask if higher-ranking officials at the Justice Department, with Goodwin’s Alpha deal already in their pockets, think it’s time to move on and pressure Goodwin to just drop it?
West Virginia political leaders certainly don’t have the stomach for much more talk about 29 coal miners getting blow up … Every chance they get, our local elected officials encourage us all to forget about the bad old days of Massey, and focus on the new leadership at Alpha (the “new ownership in Southern West Virginia“, as my friend Rep. Nick Rahall likes to say), forgetting about Alpha’s willingness to keep some top Massey managers on board – and about the fact that Alpha CEO Kevin Crutchfield can’t seem to bring himself to say publicly that UBB could have easily have been prevented and wasn’t any sort of Act of God. It takes a congressman from California – ranking Democrat on the Labor Committee, George Miller — to bother to ask Crutchfield about any of this.
Before anyone in the federal government decides they should just drop this criminal probe, I wonder if it might be worth them being put into a room for a while with the widows of Don Bragg and Elvis Hatfield or at least read what their lawyer, Bruce Stanley, told me last month:
Sadly, aggressive prosecution against upper management in the Aracoma case might have spared us the horror of UBB. We’ll never know, of course. But we certainly hope that the lesson of making deals with the devil has been learned, that the criminal investigation makes its way into the boardroom as well as the guard shack, and that Alpha chooses a different path than its predecessor.
Gazette photo by Lawrence Pierce
Forty-three years ago yesterday, 78 miners were killed in an explosion at Consolidation Coal Co.’s No. 9 Mine in Farmington, W.Va.
WBOY-TV reported from yesterday’s commemoration:
That morning, an explosion at the Consol Number 9 Mine just outside of Farmington, only allowed 21 of the 99 miners inside to escape.
“They’re heroes. These 78 men are truly heroes in the working miners’ eyes today. After this explosion, the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act was passed in 1969, which literally saved thousands and thousands of lives,” said Mike Caputo, the international vice president of UMWA District 31.
On Sunday, family and friends gathered at the site where 19 of those who died that day still remain.
The annual service has become a reunion, and a reminder to families that the sacrifice they made will never be forgotten.
“The reason why I’m here, is in honor of my dad’s memory. It’s because of him and the other 77 miners that everybody is safe to go to work and being comfortable with it now,” said Sharon Clelland, who’s father was killed in the explosion.
For the first time since the services began at the mine site, all of Sharon’s brothers and sisters were there to stand proudly with their mother.
“He has a cloud of glory. His face is so full of smiles now. He’d be so happy that we’re still together as a family. Family meant everything to Dad, and to know that we’re still as close today, as we were when we were little is just awesome,” beamed Clelland.
If you haven’t yet, check out my friend Bonnie Stewart’s book, No. 9, which chronicles the disaster and its aftermath.
Here’s the latest from the Friends of Blair Mountain:
On November 1st, a variety of citizens are coming together to raise awareness of the Battle of Blair Mountain and to call on our state agencies and politicians to preserve the Blair Mountain battlefield and develop it as the significant national historic site that it truly is.
In 1921, ten thousand coalminers joined together to fight for their basic human rights to live and work in safe conditions. They fought for five days on the steep ridges of Blair Mountain until finally federal troops quelled the conflict peacefully.
Currently, Blair Mountain is threatened by imminent destruction from MTR, an extremely destructive form of coal extraction. A broad range of citizens including community members, union coalminers, environmentalists, academics, and many other people have been working to preserve the battlefield.
We have already taken constructive steps to show that heritage tourism is profitable, with the establishment of Coal Country Tours that features Blair Mountain as a stop along a multi-day tour through the coalfields. We have also established a Community Center and Museum in the town of Blair, WV, to celebrate the struggles of coalminers at Blair Mountain as well as larger coalfield culture.
We will continue to build local business around the Blair Mountain battlefield, and to continue to honor the heritage of coal mining families. With this press conference and rally at the State Historic Preservation office at the Cultural Center, we are asking our state government to step up and help us preserve and develop Blair Mountain.
We realize it is a difficult political decision due to pressure from the coal industry, but is it one that will preserve a piece of heritage for future generations as well as building local business now. We believe that with all of us working together we can come up with a viable solution where the jobs of coalminers are protected, new and diverse business opportunities are generated in the communities around the battlefield and coal companies can still underground mine the battlefield.
Come join us on November 1, 2011, at 12:00 as we discuss the importance of Blair Mountain and present a petition with over 26,000 signatures from people around the world to the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer. Speakers will include noted scholars, mining families, activists, and community members. All are welcome to attend.
A makeshift memorial, with flowers and a sign, covered the fence outside the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 Mine in Brookwood, Ala., when I visited the area five years ago.
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the series of explosions that killed 13 coal miners at the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 Mine in Bookwood, Ala.
On this day last year, I wrote a little bit about my own trip to Brookwood five years ago, as part of the Gazette’s Beyond Sago: Coal Mine Safety in America project and series. I also wrote:
It’s worth remembering that the Bush administration’s response to Brookwood was to proceed to dismantle the regulatory safety net intended to protect our nation’s coal miners. Since then, we’ve seen not only Sago, Aracoma and Darby, but also Crandall Canyon and now, Upper Big Branch. Since that day in September 2001, 292 coal miners in the United States have died — and that doesn’t count the perhaps 10,000 who succumbed to black lung in the last decade.
I did a quick Internet search and only found one mention in the media of today’s anniversary, an article in the local Tuscaloosa News, recounting the investigation report and subsequent litigation over the disaster:
On Dec. 11, 2002, MSHA issued its report. It cited Jim Walter Resources for 27 violations, including eight major violations that the agency said contributed to the deadly disaster.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao sought $435,000 in civil fines from the company.
Jim Walter Resources appealed the penalty. MSHA Administrative Law Judge David F. Barbour took testimony over 24 days. On Nov. 1, 2005, Barbour ruled. He reduced the fine to $3,000 after dismissing six of the major violations against Jim Walter Resources and modifying the other two.
On the heels of last week’s demand for an investigation of what the United Mine Workers alleges are misleading coal exhibits at the West Virginia State Museum, citizen groups have now sued the state Department of Environmental Protection over its refusal to consider “lands unsuitable for mining” protections for historic Blair Mountain in Logan County.
As The Associated Press reported:
Several groups that couldn’t convince state regulators to declare Logan County’s Blair Mountain unsuitable for mining are taking their case to Kanawha Circuit Court.
In a complaint Thursday, they asked the court to force the state Department of Environmental Protection to accept their June petition and hold a hearing.
“DEP can’t just skip the public hearing because it’s more convenient for them to do so,” argued Bill Price of the Sierra Club. “… Blair Mountain belongs to all West Virginians, and all West Virginians have a right to weigh in.”
Recall that WVDEP’s mining director, Tom Clarke, declared the citizens’ petition “frivolous” and refused to even process it — let alone hold a public hearing and examine the matter in any detail. In his letter responding to the original petition, Clarke wrote:
A significant portion of the lands identified in your petition has been affected in the past and continued to be affected by oil and gas and logging operations. These activities have great potential to adversely affect the historic integrity of the lands you have identified. A declaration that the lands you have identified are unsuitable for mining would not effectively protect the historic integrity of these lands because it would have no effect on oil and gas and logging operations.
Because I am rejecting your petition as frivolous, no other findings are being made with respect to it.
Since the 1991 petitions were submitted, a number of new and significant facts have come to light. The exact area for which we had requested unsuitability status is ‘eligible for listing’ on the National Register of historic places, and multiple professionalarchaeological and historical surveys have been completed, which led to the discovery of 15 previously unknown battle sites at Blair Mountain.
And Cindy Rank, mining chair of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, said:
For DEP to dismiss the entire petition because some minor portion of the petition boundary might be ineligible due to prior permitting ignores the value and eligibility of the other 70% of the Battlefield. DEP’s response is an affront to the very intent of the Surface Mine Act, which provides a mechanism to protect important historical sites like Blair Mountain.
UPDATED:
In related news, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., has denied a request from the Department of Interior to transfer a case challenging the removal of Blair Mountain from the National Register of Historic Places to a federal court in West Virginia.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton noted the “national significance” of the issue. I’ve posted a copy of the ruling here.
Just in from the United Mine Workers of America, this three-page letter to W.Va. Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, in which UMWA President Cecil Roberts raises major questions about the state museum’s portrayal of coal history:
Over the past months, several members of the UMWA staff have visited the West Virginia State Museum on many separate occasions. I have been to the museum myself, and seen the displays there. I have a number of very serious concerns with what is an inaccurate portrayal of the UMWA and our history of oppression and struggle against the coal operators of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Among the examples:
– The ‘Company Store’ including the discussion of the system of using mine company scrip instead of U.S. legal tender to pay miners. Your presentation makes it seem as if the scrip system was little different from a credit card, where miners and their families could pay of expensive purchases over time.
Nowhere is it stated that miners had absolutely no choice as to whether they used scrip or not. Nowhere is it mentioned that going somewhere else instead of the company store to purchase goods and equipment was an offense frequently punishable by a beating from the company’s Baldwin-Felts thugs followed by dismissal from employment and eviction from the company house.
– ‘Coal Mining’ includes misleading statements regarding Island Creek Coal and the UMWA organizing, as well as a very small presentation regarding the worst industrial disaster in United States history — the explosion at the Monongah Mine — that includes language regarding the company’s Christmas ‘gift’ to the families of those killed that is offensive to the memories of the fallen miners.
– ‘The Battle of Blair Mountain,’ which blames Sid Hatfield for instigating the violence in the coalfields that led to that battle, instead of focusing on the daily violence inflicted on coal miners and their families in the coal camps of the day.
Roberts continues in his letter:
Indeed, in just about every instance where the UMWA is mentioned in the museum, we are linked with violence or some other unsavory activity. There is no mention of the millions of West Virginians who have, over the past 60 + years, received or continue to receive the benefits of UMWA pensions and retiree health care — considerably easing their senior years — which were negotiated by the UMWA.
There is no mention of the UMWA’s leading role in passing mine safety and health legislation which have saved countless lives in West Virginia and throughout the nation. There is no mention of the UMWA’s role in fighting to end black lung and to establish and then protect black lung compensation.
Roberts asks Randall Reid-Smith to respond, and explain how the state intends to “correct this false information” and “whether or not you intend to work with the UMWA on correcting the biases imparted by so many of the museum’s displays.”
UPDATED: KIMBERLY OSBORNE, A SPOKESWOMAN FOR SENATE PRESIDENT, ACTING AS GOVERNOR, EARL RAY TOMBLIN ISSUED THIS STATEMENT THIS AFTERNOON:
“I appreciate Cecil Roberts and the UMWA for bringing their concerns to light,” Gov. Tomblin said. “And the impact labor organizations like the UMWA has had on our state and nation in shaping today’s workplace. As such, I have instructed the Division of Culture and History to review the information provided and act accordingly to ensure our state’s history is portrayed accurately.”
Update: The Gazette’s Dr. Paul Nyden has a full story on this development in today’s paper. It’s online here.
This just in: The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has responded to the petition filed in early June seeking to protect Blair Mountain by having the area declared “unsuitable for mining” under the strip-mining law.
WVDEP’s answer to the petition filed by the Sierra Club, along with labor and historic preservation groups?
The petition is “frivolous”.
That’s right, in this three-page letter to Derek Teaney at the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, from Tom Clarke, director of the WVDEP Division of Mining and Reclamation.
Tom’s writes that a “significant portion” of the area has already been mined or was part of previous petitions for lands unsuitable declarations. In addition, the WVDEP letter adds:
A significant portion of the lands identified in your petition has been affected in the past and continued to be affected by oil and gas and logging operations. These activities have great potential to adversely affect the historic integrity of the lands you have identified. A declaration that the lands you have identified are unsuitable for mining would not effectively protect the historic integrity of these lands because it would have no effect on oil and gas and logging operations.
Tom Clarke’s letter concludes:
Because I am rejecting your petition as frivolous, no other findings are being made with respect to it.
So, as far as WVDEP is concerned … that’s the end of the story.
Here’s a great video featuring the incredible Hazel Dickens:
And here’s one of my friend Kathy Mattea singing my personal favorite West Virginia song:
Have a great day everybody!
A story in today’s Wall Street Journal by Kris Maher has the first comments I’ve seen from Alpha Natural Resources about the future of Blair Mountain:
Alpha Natural Resources Inc. of Abingdon, Va., said it doesn’t intend to conduct mountain-top removal in the historic battleground area, but acquired one active operation outside the 1,600-acre boundary when it bought Massey Energy.
“We agree that Blair Mountain is an area of historical significance, and an appropriate commemoration of the 1921 events ought to be considered,” said Alpha spokesman Ted Pile. But, he added, a commemoration shouldn’t “abrogate the legal rights of the many property owners and leaseholders in the area.”
Gazette photos by Lawrence Pierce
The Blair Mountain marchers entered their third day today on their trek through Boone and Logan counties, and apparently their effort has run into some problems — and some not-so unexpected opposition to their cause.
The Gazette’s Dr. Paul Nyden reports in today’s paper:
They originally planned to spend Monday night at John Slack Park in Racine, but Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller told the marchers Monday evening they had to leave the site.
… The marchers ended up walking about 15 miles Tuesday, from Racine to a small park near the intersection of W.Va. 3 and Corridor G, just north of Danville.
They stopped briefly at about 2 p.m. outside the grounds of the Boone Career and Technical Center, part of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College near the town of Foster.
They originally planned to spend Tuesday night on the school’s grounds, but were told by college officials they could not do that.
Rodney Smith, an administrator at the college, said on Tuesday he did not know why the marchers were told they could not stay.
“But we don’t have much grass. Big Earl’s Campground [about five miles north, near Julian] volunteered to let them stay there,” Smith said.
But Stanley said the marchers were told they could not stay there either, and they would have to take shuttles back to Marmet to spend another night there Tuesday.
Interestingly, I had a couple calls from anti-mountaintop removal activists who were really charged up about all of this, alleging that “coal thugs” had injured some of the marchers and stuff like that … at least according to the march’s own website, it thankfully doesn’t appear that any of that was true:
Monday night around 10 oclock the County Commissioner of Boone came to the park to order us to leave the park, overriding prior verbal permission and said that if the Marchers did not leave the park all marchers would be arrested. A small group of vocal counter-protesters added tension to the situation. Police worked with the marchers to evacuate John Slack Park safely.
We decided to leave because we aren’t marching to take a stand at this park, or confront the Boone County Commissioner; we’re here to March on Blair Mountain, confront coal industry power, and demand preservation of Blair Mountain, it’s history, and end MTR.
In this June 6, 2011 photo, this historical marker along W.Va. Route 17 in Blair, W.Va., is the only visible sign of the 1921 battle here between thousands of armed, unionizing coal miners and the thousands of law enforcement officers and security guards hired to defeat them. At least 16 men died on the mountain, which could be turned into a strip mine. (AP Photo/Vicki Smith)
My buddy Dr. Paul Nyden on Sunday previewed the start of the March on Blair Mountain:
More than 600 people are expected to begin a 50-mile march from Marmet to Blair Mountain on Monday to protest mountaintop removal mining.
The five-day event comes close to the 90th anniversary of the historic Battle of Blair Mountain, where more than 10,000 union miners marched from Marmet to help organize non-union coal mines in Logan and Mingo counties.
In 1921, the march from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4 was the largest armed confrontation in United States labor history. It ended when federal troops were sent into the area.
This year’s event is “to demand sustainable job creation in all Appalachian communities, abolish mountaintop removal, strengthen labor rights and preserve Blair Mountain,” the groups Appalachia Rising and the Blair Mountain Coalition said on the march website.
The Washington Post is reporting the sad news — mentioned to me by several readers earlier today — that legendary singer Hazel Dickens has died:
Ms. Dickens grew up in dire poverty in West Virginia’s coal country and developed a raw, keening style of singing that was filled with the pain of her hardscrabble youth. She supported herself in day jobs for many years before she was heard on the soundtrack of the 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about coal mining, ”Harlan County, U.S.A.”
Her uncompromising songs about coal mining, such as “Black Lung” and “They Can’t Keep Us Down,” became anthems, and she was among the first to sing of the plight of women trying to get by in the working-class world. She was a longtime Washington resident and became a key influence on such later singing stars as Emmylou Harris, Allison Krauss and the Judds.
My friend Kate Long has a longer story about Hazel that’s posted on the website of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame here. And here’s some music:
And a clip from Mimi Pickering’s Appalshop film, “It’s Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song”:
And of course …
More legal news that I didn’t get to on Friday: The United Mine Workers of America union has filed a motion asking to have its say in the Sierra Club’s lawsuit seeking to put Blair Mountain back on the National Register of Historic Places.
In their motion, lawyers for the UMWA explain the significance of the 1921 battle:
Though the UMWA miners who marked to Blair Mountain were defeated in battle, their stand paved the way for legislative and collective bargaining achievements in the first half of the twentieth century that helped build the American middle class.
The Battle of Blair Mountain was perhaps the most significant of a number of episodes of “industrial strife and unrest” that Congress eventually sought to prevent by creating a legal framework for worker organization and peaceful resolution of industrial disputes.
And in their proposed “friend of the court” brief, the UMWA lawyers back the Sierra Club’s view that “powerful coal companies have undermined the process for nomination of Blair Mountain Battlefield to the National Register”:
It is beyond dispute that powerful coal companies continue to wield considerable influence over the economy and politics in West Virginia and beyond. Indeed, the instant matter demonstrates that the present-day administration of federal statutes in the state is not immune from such influence.
I’ve posted the UMWA’s court documents here.
UPDATED: Here’s a link to Dr. Paul Nyden’s Gazette story about this Blair Mountain march announcement.
The folks from the Friends of Blair Mountain are set to announce later today their plans for a “a massive non-violent five-day march” from Marmet to Logan County to call attention to their efforts to preserve the site of the 1921 labor battle.
According to a press advisory about today’s event:
Speakers will include: Denise Giardina, acclaimed Appalachian writer; Mari-Lynn Evans, 2010 Appalachian filmmaker of the Year; Ken Hechler, statesman and former WV Secretary of State; Chuck Nelson, activist and retired UMWA miner; Terry Steele, retired UMWA miner; Wilma Steele, Mingo County art teacher; Chuck Keeney, professor at Southern WV Community and Technical College, great-grandson of famed UMWA Leader Frank Keeney; Jesse Johnson, Executive Committee member and former chair of the environmentalist Mountain Party; Mickey McCoy, member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and former Mayor of Inez, Kentucky; and Paul Corbit Brown, photojournalist and Frontline Human Rights Defenders Top 100 Human Rights Defenders in the World.
The march itself is scheduled for early June, and the news advisory explained it this way:
March planners believe that current plans to mountaintop removal mine Blair Mountain would dishonor the memory of the miners who sacrificed their lives for the right to collectively bargain. Citizens and organizers assert that if mining permits move forward on Blair Mountain, the most significant heritage site in Appalachia will be destroyed and the communities around Blair Mountain will be irreparably and adversely affected.
Citizens will march in support of preserving Blair Mountain and abolishing mountaintop removal in all of Appalachia. The march is additionally planned in support of strengthening labor rights nationwide and investing in sustainable job creation for all communities.
You can watch today’s announcement via live Web streaming here.
Here’s part of “Disaster on Buffalo Creek: A Citizens’ Report on the Criminal Negligence in a West Virginia Mining Community,” which we posted online back in 1997 as part of Voices of Buffalo Creek, a series to mark the 25th anniversary of this terrible disaster:
For the Buffalo Creek disaster, like the recent coal-mine fire tragedies at Farmington, West Virginia, and at Hyden, Kentucky, could have been prevented — it need not have happened. Clearly and simply, people living downstream from the Buffalo Mining Company’s coal refuse dam at Saunders were the victims of gross negligence.
In Appalachian — sometimes known as “the last white colony of western civilization” — absentee owners of the region’s vast energy resources and their subservient homebred and imported politicians time and again are to blame for mass death and destruction. Time and again, those most at fault throw up smokescreens to obscure their responsibility .
There is a basic question raised anew by Buffalo Creek, the latest assault by the coal operators in their long slaughterhouse in death, injury and disease: Whether the people of Appalachia and West Virginia can any longer afford this senseless destruction of their lives, their land, and their democratic institutions; or whether the ownership and operation of coal mines should be brought under democratic control to benefit all the people. All to clearly the tragedy of Buffalo Creek has torn away the mask, revealing the ugly truth that powerful coal interests dominate the government, the environment, and the West Virginia way of life to the detriment of all citizens. Discussion and action are needed now to transform King Coal, the tyrant, into Citizen Coal, the servant of all — before and not after another Buffalo Creek disaster.
Hey folks, I’ve been out for a few days and am catching up on things. I wanted to make sure Coal Tattoo readers didn’t miss this commentary from United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts, published first on the Perspectives page of the Sunday Gazette-Mail:
When my great-uncle Bill Blizzard marched up the side of Blair Mountain with several thousand other coal miners in the late summer of 1921, he wasn’t thinking about the coal that lay within the mountain. He wasn’t thinking about whether the streams along the base of the mountain ran clear or not.
He was thinking instead about the murder of his friend Sid Hatfield by Baldwin-Felts thugs just a few weeks before. He was thinking about the near-slavery conditions coal miners and their families were forced to endure. He was thinking about how to make their lives better.
It’s important for Americans to remember the events that occurred on the slopes of Blair Mountain those fateful days, for it is a compelling and historically significant story of struggle against oppression. That story cannot be told nearly as well if the mountain is not there.
Blair Mountain is as close to sacred ground as there is for the UMWA. Though we may not physically own the mountain’s land, its legacy is ours. We strongly support its preservation, for it represents the power ordinary people have when they decide to stick together and take up common struggle for the benefit of all. That is the essence of who we are as union members.
Today, West Virginians are still thinking about coal miners’ jobs, and about how to make their lives and their communities better. But we are also thinking about the coal under Blair Mountain and surrounding ridges, and what ought to be done with it. And we are thinking about whether the water runs clear, not just for the fish, but for the people as well.
These are critical times in the coalfields. For coal miners, our families, our relatives, our friends and our neighbors, the decisions we make and the actions we take will determine not just how we live, but how our descendants will live for generations to come.
We must do our best to make the right decisions. And as we do, we must also realize (just as those miners did so many years ago) that although we may not agree on everything, we are all in this together. Failure to do so puts us at the mercy of those who would use our differences to divide us, allowing them to reap their own, selfish rewards at our expense.
So let us start.
Let us start by recognizing the dignity of work, and the fact that those who mine coal, by whatever method, do so because they seek to provide for themselves and their families. And let us also recognize that when the UMWA represents any workers anywhere, we have a duty to defend every one of their jobs and make them the best jobs they can be.
Let us start by recognizing that coal operators have a responsibility to make the jobs of their workers as safe as possible. And they have a responsibility to respect their neighbors and do all in their power to minimize any damage that may be done to the environment as a result of their operations. And they further have a responsibility to repair any damage they do cause.
Let us start by recognizing that if the operators do not fulfill those responsibilities, then someone has to make them do so, most often the federal or state government, or both. The last thing any of us in the coalfields should desire is to go back to the days when coal operators were allowed to do anything they wanted with no consequences. That’s how Bill Blizzard ended up at Blair Mountain, after all.
Let us start by recognizing that the government has a critical role to play, because for too long, far too many coal operators have not respected their workers, not respected their neighbors, not cared about the damage their operations may have done and not cared to repair that damage once it was done.
Let us start by recognizing that whatever role government does play, it has a responsibility to take into account the impact of its actions on all concerned. And government has a responsibility to seek ways for coalfield residents, including miners and their communities, to benefit, not suffer, from its actions.
Let us start by recognizing that there will be changes in the way our nation and our world generate electricity over the next century. We don’t yet know what form this change will take, nor how fast it will happen. We do know that there are not currently enough other sources of energy (whether other fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear, biofuels or anything else) to replace the energy we create from coal to feed a growing demand in America, much less the world.
Let us start by recognizing that at some point in our future (perhaps decades from now, perhaps centuries from now (the coal will run out or will become too expensive to mine. Between now and then, it is our task to do all we can to develop ways to use coal responsibly and cleanly to power our nation and our world.
And let us start by reaffirming that all God’s children have a right to prosper in a safe and livable environment (at home and on the job) where they can thrive without fear of sickness, disease or injury caused by the irresponsible actions of corporations motivated solely by profit at any cost.
I believe that, working together, we can develop an environmentally sound and economically secure way forward for those who live and work in the coalfields of central Appalachia, one that does not merely celebrate the heritage of coal but embraces its future. If we are to live by the lesson of Blair Mountain, standing together to create a better future for all our children and grandchildren, we really don’t have any other choice.
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years today since the explosion at International Coal Group’s Sago Mine in Upshur County, W.Va., that killed these 12 men and nearly killed their coworker, Randal McCloy.
Their names, from left to right and top to bottom:
Tom Anderson, Terry Helms, Marty Bennett, Martin Toler, Marshall Winans, Junior Hamner, Jesse Jones, Jerry Groves, James Bennett, Jackie Weaver, Fred Ware, and David Lewis.
And after three other major mining accidents that followed — Aracoma, Darby and Crandall Canyon — it’s even harder to believe that 2010 turned out to be still worse.
Twenty-nine West Virginia coal miners died in the April 5 explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine, and through late last week, 19 other U.S. coal miners had been killed on the job in 2010. Nationwide, it’s the deadliest year for the coal industry since 1992. Here in West Virginia, the 35 coal-mining deaths through Dec. 29 ranked as the worst year since 1979.
What MSHA chief Joe Main said recently about the Upper Big Branch families undoubtedly is true for the families of all of these fallen miners:
No one knows the real suffering and pain that these folks go through. It’s awful. Life changed forever for them.
And as I’ve said before, it’s always worth remembering these words from the last Sen. Robert C. Byrd, spoken on the Senate floor after Sago:
I’ve seen it all before. First, the disaster, then the weeping and then the outrage. But in a few weeks, when the outrage is gone, when the ink on the editorials is dry, everything returns to business as usual.
In this Feb. 14, 1981, file photo, Todd Domboski, 12, of Centralia, Pa., looks over a barricade at the hole he fell through just hours before this photo was taken in Centralia, Pa. The hole was cause by a mine fire that had been burning since 1962.
Here’s an update on the litigation surrounding the forced evacuation of the Pennsylvania town of Centralia (see previous posts here and here):
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press Writer
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Residents of a central Pennsylvania coal town decimated by a mine fire have gone to federal court in an effort to prevent state officials from evicting them from their homes.
Centralia’s few remaining residents lodged a civil rights complaint against the state Department of Community and Economic Development and other defendants, alleging a conspiracy to steal the mineral rights to billions of dollars worth of anthracite coal.
The residents asked a federal judge Friday for an injunction that would bar the state from proceeding with eminent domain while their lawsuit, filed earlier this week, is being heard.
Most of Centralia was demolished in the 1980s after the slow-burning fire that began in 1962 at the town dump spread to the underground network of coal mines, threatening residents with poisoning gases and dangerous sinkholes.
Only a handful of people remain in Centralia, resisting the state’s efforts to get them to leave.
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