Archive for May, 2006
Coal Industry Says Emergency Safety Rules Too Costly, Too Strict
Something is very, very wrong in our coal mines. Less than five months into the year, 31 coal miners have been killed on the job, including five last weekend in Harlan County, Ky., and 12 who died Jan. 2 in the Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia. More coal miners already have died on the job this year than in any full year since 2001, when 42 were killed.
Coal miners, their families, the Mine Workers union and a growing number of state and federal legislators are demanding new and tougher coal mine safety laws. Even the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration—rightfully criticized for lax enforcement, ties to the coal industry and an unwillingness to develop new safety rules—issued some emergency measures in March as the 2006 death toll climbed.
But guess who says those emergency measures have gone too far and should be rolled back? The coal industry.
Black Vote up in New Orleans Runoff, but Thousands Still Disenfranchised
Although 5,000 more African Americans voted in Saturday’s New Orleans mayoral runoff election than in the April 22 primary, thousands still were unable to vote.
“The absence of out-of-state polling places for voters who had to leave because of [Hurricane] Katrina was a tremendous problem,” says Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The voting rights advocacy group operated a hot line for voter complaints in New Orleans Saturday. Of the 102,000 voters eligible to vote by absentee ballot or in early voting, only 26,000 voted, Arnwine says.
Traditional Pension Best Bet for Safe Retirement
As Congress considers legislation that could drive many employers to drop traditional pension plans, a new report shows those plans offer millions of workers their best hope for a secure retirement.
In Future Retirement Income Security Needs Defined Benefit Pensions, Notre Dame economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci says defined-benefit plans, which guarantee a monthly payment amount to each retiree, provide a safer retirement than defined-contribution plans such as 401(k)s, which shift the risk of retirement savings to workers. The report was prepared for the Center for American Progress.
In Deadly Kentucky Blast, Did Oxygen Devices Fail?
Three of the five miners killed after an explosion in a Harlan County, Ky., coal mine May 20 survived the blast but died from carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the county coroner. The lone survivor said his oxygen self-rescuer that all miners carry to help them escape a poisonous atmosphere did not work properly, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Randall McCloy, the sole survivor of the Jan. 2 Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia, which killed a dozen miners, said oxygen devices there also didn’t properly function.
State and federal mining officials investigating the Harlan County explosion are looking at a buildup of coal dust as a primary or secondary factor in the blast. Inspectors from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) repeatedly have cited the owners of the Darby Mine No. 1 in Holmes Mill for not cleaning up coal dust and other combustible material, including three times this month, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
Thirty-one coal miners have been killed in the mines so far this year, compared with 22 in all of 2005. But in the four months since the Sago disaster focused the nation’s attention on mine safety, the Bush administration and Congress have done little.
It’s Time to Protect Coal Miners
Amon Brock, Jimmy D. Lee, Roy Middleton, George William Petra and Paris Thomas Jr. These are the miners who died early yesterday morning in a Harlan County, Ky., coal mine explosion. The youngest was 35 and the oldest was 53. The one survivor, Paul Ledford, was treated for burns at a hospital and released.
Their deaths bring to 31 the number of workers who have died this year in America’s coal mines, compared with 22 in all of 2005. More than four months have passed since the year began with the devastating Sago mine disaster in West Virginia, which killed 12 miners. And nothing meaningful has been done by the Bush administration or Congress.
It’s time to act to protect coal miners. Right now, tell your members of Congress to pass real mine safety reform.
Foreign Parts Cost U.S. Jobs
The AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department (MTD) is calling for the U.S. Coast Guard to investigate whether a Philadelphia shipyard is violating the law, endangering national security and taking away U.S. jobs by having most of the parts for U.S. tanker ships made in Korea.
The Jones Act and other maritime laws require shippers use vessels built and owned by U.S. citizens to haul products between U.S. ports. But under a partnership agreement between Akers Shipyard and South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, Akers imports pre-assembled components from Hyundai to use in building ships that fall under the Jones Act.
Says MTD President Ron Ault:
Congress passed the Jones Act to protect the United States shipbuilding industry so that, in times of emergency, our country has the facilities and the employees to produce vessels. We believe that Aker’s practices undermine the Jones Act by allowing important components of these vessels to be prefabricated or preassembled overseas rather than in the United States. We have it on good authority that the ship Aker is now building comes right out of boxes brought in from South Korea.
BREAKING: Five More Coal Mine Deaths
Five miners died early this morning in an explosion in a Harlan County, Ky., coal mine. A sixth miner escaped alive, according to the Associated Press.
So far this year, more than 30 coal miners have died on the job. The year’s coal mine tragedies began Jan. 2, when an explosion and resulting carbon monoxide poisoning killed 12 miners in the Sago mine in West Virginia.
USW, South African Unions Unite to Fight Anti-Worker Paper Company
The USW International Union (USW) and the South African Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) are joining together to take on the giant paper manufacturer Sappi, which is not respecting its workers’ rights on two continents and is allegedly discriminating against black South Africans in its mills there.
USW President Leo Gerard has this to say:
We’re bound and determined to change how Sappi treats its workers, and that takes global solidarity among its unions. Our solidarity will show Sappi that it’s far more beneficial to work with us than against us. Together, we could help the company meet the competitive demands of the paper industry that it’s putting at risk by its anti-worker practices.
Maryland Public Service No Longer Public—‘Corporate-Controlled’ Instead
How does Maryland’s “Corporate Service Commission” sound?
It’s still called the Public Service Commission, which is supposed to look out for the state’s utility customers, but isn’t providing much service to the public. Earlier this year, it gave a thumbs up to a 72 percent rate hike that will hit customers of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. this summer.
Now, it could very well help hand a $40 million windfall to an energy company CEO tied to that humongous rate hike.
Next up on the Bush ‘Free Trade’ Agenda: Korea-U.S.
A coalition of U.S. and South Korean trade union members is forming to ensure that workers’ rights is on the agenda when negotiators meet next month to kick off talks on a trade agreement between the two countries.
Talks begin June 5 in Washington, D.C., on the Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement (KORUS), the next in a round of bilateral trade talks by the Bush administration. Like other trade agreements pushed by the Bush White House, KORUS is expected to be based on the failed model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has cost more than 1 million U.S. jobs and caused real wages in Mexico to fall by 25 percent over the past 11 years, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
