Coal Mining and Worker Safety (1/31/2006)

I never knew my maternal grandfather. He was one of six men who died in the Emerald Coal and Coke Company’s coalmine fire in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1944. 151 miners escaped a fiery death in that mining tragedy, but six were trapped in the main haulage, 4,500 feet from the bottom of the 80-foot shaft, when a load of hay caught fire from a short-circuited wire. When all hope of their being alive was abandoned, the section where they were caught was sealed off. My mother told me the company bulldozed the area; there was no compensation for the miners’ survivors.

I was reminded of my grandfather’s horrible death and that company’s indifferent attitude as the stories of two coalmine disasters in West Virginia unfolded this month. Twelve miners died in an explosion at the Sago mine; two miners died in a fire at the Alma mine. The media covered it, President Bush prayed, and politicians expressed sympathy and promised to hold hearings. Miners and their families endure a harsh life, but as time moves on, the stories fade and the disaster inquiries are hidden from the public. Remember August 2002-- nine coalminers were trapped for 77 hours in a flooded mineshaft in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Bush rushed to that scene and offered his prayers. Yet, only a few months earlier he had cut funding for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, the agency responsible for ensuring coalmine safety, and had reduced its staff by ten percent.

The AFL-CIO reports that Bush has reduced the federal government’s commitment to protecting workers’ safety and health. His fiscal year 2006 funding levels for the Office of Safety and Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are insufficient to maintain their current program activities. In fact, their combined budgets of $1.03 billion amount to less than $8 per worker to protect Americans from job injuries, illnesses and death. Bush’s policy relies on employers’ voluntary compliance instead of government enforcement.

The Sago and Alma mine disasters show that relying on employer compliance is deadly for workers. In the past two years, the Mine Safety agency has cited Sago 273 times for “significant and substantial” safety violations. And the problems were getting worse: in the first half of 2005, Sago had 75 violations; in the second half of 2005, there were 133 citations; most of them were classified as significant, along with a growing number of “unwarrantable failures.” The Alma mine had at least 12 safety violations in the past six months. A January 5 Chicago Tribune article states: “Any fines the government might ultimately levy because of the accident will likely be whittled down in an arcane administrative review process that tends to favor mine companies.” For example, in 2002, a $440,000 fine against a Brookfield, Alabama company for infractions that claimed 13 lives was reduced to $3,000.

Bush has filled important posts in mine safety agencies with cronies from the coal, oil and gas industry; corporate interests override worker safety concerns. Workers fear reprisals if they report safety violations. The Sago and Alma miners might have lived if the Bush administration had carried out its responsibilities. Will these latest coalmine disasters be forgotten? Will safety citations continue to be ignored so companies can make ever-higher profits? Will workers be considered expendable while a so-called pro-life administration fakes concern about them?

- Judith Kohler

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