It's open season for Coal Mine Owners. It appears that the hard
fought gains made by Labor Unions back at the turn of the last century
have been forgotten. The Owners are well organized. Workers need to
understand that. The only way to gain safe working conditions, decent
pay and medical and retirement, will be through Organizing. Do the
Workers have the backbone to take a unified stand and demand what is
rightfully theirs?
Carl Jarvis
On 8/22/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8132/813202.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 32 August 28, 2017
(front page)
Coal miner deaths rise as bosses push more speedup
BY TONY LANE
The first seven months of 2017 have seen a dramatic rise in deaths of
miners on the job in U.S. coal mines after several years when they had
been declining as the industry contracted. By Aug. 5, 11 miners have
died, more than the eight killed in 2016.
Many are new miners, or experienced miners working in new coal mines.
Five were in their early 30s or 20s. Four had spent less than a year at
the mine, one only a few days. A number were experienced miners, but
because of bankruptcies, closures and the downturn in coal production
had recently taken jobs in new mines.
The majority of the deaths have been in the eastern coalfields, five in
West Virginia alone.
There has been a sharp drop in the number of union-organized mines in
the last couple decades, as the mine bosses in search of profits have
pushed hard for speedup and corner-cutting on safety.
Ray Hatfield Jr., a 23-year veteran in the mines, was six months into
his latest job when he was crushed to death in a Kentucky mine Jan. 26.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration said his death was
preventable, citing a number of safety violations at the mine.
“Hatfield was working in a deathtrap, with not even minimal safety
requirements being met,” Tony Oppegard, an area attorney who represents
mining families, told the press. “This is what a lot of Appalachian coal
miners have to put up with.”
Patricia Silvey, the deputy assistant secretary of labor, said MSHA will
respond by organizing visits to mines, reviewing training programs and
observing young miners on the job.
The United Mine Workers of America said the initiative falls far short
of what is needed, noting federal inspectors who conduct such training
visits are barred from punishing the mine if they spot safety violations.
“To take away the inspector’s right to issue a violation takes away the
one and only enforcement power the inspector and the agency has,” union
President Cecil Roberts wrote in a recent letter to MSHA. The union also
pointed out that at union mines, a union representative would not be
required to accompany inspectors on these visits.
“When you let up on enforcement and you want to coddle operators and ask
them to comply and assist them with complying, instead of making them
comply,” UMWA spokesman Phil Smith told the media, “you will inevitably
see an increase in bad accidents, bad injuries and fatalities.”
“To my way of thinking, new miners are not getting enough experience;
they’re just getting turned loose. There should be more on-the-job
training,” Wilson Maxwell, president of UMWA Local 8982 at the
preparation plant for the Oak Grove mine in Alabama, told the Militant
in a phone interview. In June Marius Shepherd, a 32-year-old miner
involved in preshift examinations there, was killed in a train haulage
accident underground. “He had only been at the mine a short period of
months, and didn’t have any experience on the haulage,” Maxwell said.
When he started in the mines, Maxwell explained, “I didn’t run a piece
of equipment for a year. Nowadays, with a few days of experience, they
have workers running equipment.” He criticized MSHA’s plans for mine
visits that bar inspectors from writing up violations, saying, “If there
is a danger, something should be done.”
The rise in coal mine deaths occurs as coal production is increasing for
the first time in years. E&E News, which describes itself as an organ
for “energy and environment professionals,” wrote that the uptick in
coal production “has led to a handful of new mine openings and more
shifts at existing mines. But the downturn saw many ex-miners leave for
new jobs or new towns, with only red hats [inexperienced miners] to take
their place.”
Coal production is up 15 percent in the first six months of 2017 after
record low production last year. Prices for natural gas — the main
competitor of coal for power plants — are up and demand for export coal
in China has increased. This has led to new hiring.
A year ago many of the big coal producers were in bankruptcy. Since
then, the two top companies, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, have
restructured and are trading on the stock exchange again.
And they’re taking steps to boost profitability at the expense of
miners’ life and limb. “High-cost coal mines are being shuttered while
operations are moved to low-cost regions,” Wall Street investment firm
Zacks.com said.
Related articles:
On The Picket Line
No coal miner has to die!
Frame-up trial against Quebec rail workers to begin Sept. 11
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