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Massey Mine Cited for 450+ Safety Violations Before Deadly Blast
The Massey Energy Co. mine, where 25 coal miners were killed and four remain unaccounted following an explosion yesterday, was assessed nearly $1 million in fines for safety violations last year, including violations concerning escape routes and ventilation, according to federal records and news reports.
The mine is owned by Massey and operated by its subsidiary, Performance Coal Co.
Early indications indicate the blast was caused by highly explosive methane gas leaking from sealed-off areas of the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va.—the same cause of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 miners. New federal mine safety rules enacted after the Sago disaster included tougher new requirements for sealing off worked-out areas.
CNN reports that in 2009, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposed nearly $1 million in fines for more than 450 safety violations at the nonunion Upper Big Branch Mine, including penalties for
more than 50 “unwarrantable failure” violations, which are among the most serious findings an inspector can issue. Among those were citations for escape routes for miners and air quality ventilation.
According to ABC News, Massey was fighting the MSHA fines, including those for
57 infractions just last month for violations that included repeatedly failing to develop and follow the ventilation plan. The federal records catalog the problems at the Upper Big Branch Mine….They show the company was fighting many of the steepest fines, or simply refusing to pay them.
MSHA records also show that in at least six of the past 10 years, the Massey mine’s injury rate has been worse than the national average for similar operations.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former Mine Workers (UMWA) president and third generation coal miner, says, “The thoughts and prayers of America’s workers are with the families” of those killed and for the safety of the “courageous” rescue teams. He adds:
However, this incident isn’t just a matter of happenstance, but rather the inevitable result of a profit-driven system and reckless corporate conduct. Many mining companies have given too little attention to safety over the years and too much to the bottom line.
In 2006, a fire at Massey’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine, also in West Virginia, killed two miners. Ultimately, Massey’s Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty to 10 criminal mine safety violations and paid $2.5 million in fines related to that fatal fire. According to ABC, the two miners “suffocated as they looked for a way to escape.”
Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports. The two widows of the miners killed in Aracoma were unsatisfied by the plea agreement, telling the judge they believed the company cared more about profits then safety.
Tony Oppegard, a lawyer and mine safety advocate from Kentucky, told The New York Times, “Massey’s commitment to safety has long been questioned in the coalfields.” The Times notes a 2006 internal memo from Massey CEO Donald Blankenship.
In the memo, Mr. Blankenship instructed the company’s underground mine superintendents to place coal production first.
“This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills,” he wrote.
Last night, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), whose district includes the Upper Big Branch Mine, told reporters:
This is the second major disaster at a Massey site in recent years, and something needs to be done.
Meanwhile, the Charleston Gazette reports safety officials are looking at methane that built up inside a sealed-off area or leaked through the seals as the cause of the blast. In 2006, methane from sealed-off areas caused the explosions at a Sago, W.Va., mine that killed 12 miners and also at the Darby Mine in Kentucky where two coal miners were killed.
The new mine safety rules passed after the Sago and Darby disasters called for increased monitoring of air quality in active and sealed sections of the mines to avoid methane build up. The new regulations also required mine operators to install stronger barriers between active and nonactive sections of mines.
But, as Oppegard told the Gazette, “Seals can be deadly if they are not maintained and monitored properly.”
In a statement today on the explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, Rahall says:
We will scrutinize the health and safety violations at this mine to see whether the law was circumvented and miner’s precious lives were willfully put at risk, and there will be accountability.
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21 Comments
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move the Headquarters offices into the mine shafts, maybe then they will worry about the safety of the employees. Fines mean nothing to those in charge also give them Jail time, after all it is against the law to kill someone. Prayers for these families.
Companies putting profits over workplace safety. It is starting to sound like a broken record. I am a miner who works in an iron mine in Minnesota (USW represented). Mining is an incredibly dangerous occupation, and I shudder to think what our mine would be like without our union safety committee. I have to admit that I am a little perturbed that MSHA didn’t order a shutdown to fix the ventillation problems. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the miners and my hope is that some day these corporations realize that worker safety should be foremost. The problem is that safety and maintenance are not reflected on the bottom line. You cant show how much money was saved by preventing a horrific accident, so many companies do not want to pay the expense to fix problems.
I have never been a union member but I recently started following the AFL-CIO because they are one of the few voices standing up to the hate and violence being championed by the Republicans, their masters at Fox News and Rupert Murdoch’s Tea Party. IMHO the latest mining disaster is a of epic proportions. Not much separates the miners and their families from characters out of a Charles Dickens novel and Massey Energy CEO Blankenship is Scrooge on steroids. Just like some Wall Street players, some mining industry executives can not be trusted to do the right thing. The big difference is that their corruption and greed kills people not bank accounts. I hope that membership in the United Mine Workers Union makes a comeback. Mineworkers like those at this non unionized mine seem powerless to protect themselves and are stuck between a very hard rock and a very hard place.
Why are you not a union member and why have you come forward now?
I am also wondering why the MSHA did not close down the Massey Mine. Just ecently the AFL-CIO blog touted Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis aa “The New Sheriff in Town”. What happened, cold feet or campaign contributions. Let’s be real. Profits over safety has always ruled in the mines.
My thoughts go out to the families and as Mother Jones said, “Pray for the Dead and Fight like Hell for the Living!”
You know, this is very disturbing and yet it is not really shocking that a mining company only cares about money being made. This entire country is suffering because of corporate greed.
My family, years ago, came from a mining area and watching this “accident” in W. Va. does nothing to encourage me to think things are any different now than they were when the UMW fought and died for better conditions.
I agree with IBEWBA’s comment above. Why aren’t mine owners and operators put in jail for killing their workers? Massey officials had knowledge before the event of dangerous conditions and chose not to correct them.
Absolutely right. Under Wisconsin statutes, the definition of second degree murder is “conduct imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind, regardless of human life..” It fits exactly what went on here. Yet, these death are always called “accidents.”
BTW, the TV news last night said that MSHA issued 2 citations on the day of the “accident,” but company officials stated that the citations had nothing to do with the “accident.”
And that’s where they left it! What probing journalism.
Absollutely right. It’s time that the union S bring suits against the company individuals and governmenty individuals who allow these violations to continue over and over again. The prosecution should specifically be for JAIL TIME for everyone involved from the top.
ABC News reported tonight that the mine had been cited twice on the day of the explosion! This is so wrong on so many levels. Any mine with any safety violations should be put on a monitored list and required to have the problem(s) corrected within 30 days, otherwise, operations are stopped until they comply. When there is no coal being mined, there is no money being made. Sadly, that is what it takes to get their attention.
It’s unreal that people remember the real purpose of the unions when workers are killed. My brother is a coal miner. My ex was a coal miner. That explosion wouldn’t have happened if it was a union mine because from what I understand many of the men who were killed were recently complaining about safety considerations but, they knew they couldn’t say anything or they would loose their jobs. I have taught school in WV for 34 years. Years ago the teachers in WV went out on strike. I can remember coal miners standing on the lines with us. I will always appreciate that. You have to live it to understand. If the union would have been evident in that mine those miners would be alive today. I hope this will cause a rise in unions. I don’t think a mine should exist in this state without a union not, after this accident.
In the 37 years since I entered by first mine I have been employed by both union and non-union mines. Give me a union representation anytime.
In the non-union mines you are fearfull of your job if you complain to much about expensive items, i.e. safety. As we all know with solidarity comes freedom to speak the truth and let your voice be heard.
I fervently hope that a union drive can give these miners the security they need to stand up to Massey and tell them that no more blood will be spilled in the name of profits. Dying for other peoples profits is just not an option.
My deepest condolences and heart felt prayers go out to these brave mens families and co-workers.
Why is it that when we go to the bargaining table to bargain about our bottom line so we can put food on the table and a roof over over the heads of our families, that is so very unimportant to them, yet, their bottom line is worth more then our lives? Why is their bottom line so important that they can’t stand to spend money to have a safe place to work?
I’ve been a Union member for over 30 years. I joined AFGE back shortly after the Council of Prison Locals was Chartered. I had worked previously inprivate companies.
Private companies always put profits as the bottom line. Workers safety, loses any meaning when it comes to profits.
All Union members send thouhts and prayers out to the families of those killed by the greedy owners.
Even companies with unions have had to fight hard for safety improvements. Believe me, I know, having been involved with asbestos and mesolithioma.
Thank God for Unions!!!!
What do you want to bet that CEO of Massey is a republican
I was born in the coal fields of West Virginia quite a few years ago. I remember at the age of 5 a miners wife with several small children and a baby coming and begging for food, money and clothing. I didn’t really understand. My mother sat me down and explained that the miners were on strike for better pay and safer conditions and that it had been going on for a long time and they needed help. She gave me some change to give the miners wife – we didn’t have a lot ourselves. After the miners wife left, my mother about how the miners were trapped by poor wages, company housing and the company store. She talked with me about how people working together had power that individuals do not have alone – together we could change things. It is apparent to me many people have to learn what I was taught as a child. Solidarity and courage! More power to a Fighting Union! Respect and admiration to those who pay the price. Her words were more gentle, but the meaning is the same!
I find this appalling: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shares-of-massey-energy-co-reverse-slide-2010-04-09?reflink=MW_news_stmp
I think of when Union Carbide had that accident in India: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
I think of the Exxon Valdez: http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/portfolio/2009/03/23/Exxon-Valdez-Lawsuit-History
It is not right how Massey Energy’s stocks are raising today. If there was government regulation and enforcement like their should be, then this would not be happening. The stock prices would be going down, like what Union Carbide’s stock prices did after the accident in India. I believe that Massey Energy is going to drag the court process out so that they end up not paying a fine, or a very low fine, for this accident that resulted in the loss of lives for more then two dozen people.
Corporations want to have person hood status. As such, people like Don Blankenship should face serious jail time. Any other serial killer would have too. This was premeditated murder on his part. Instead of trying to have a safe work place, he has said that every mine has safety problems and has appeared to be first in the race to the bottom on having the unsafest working conditions and most death traps there is. http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/07/coal-pays-bills/
I think that the reason why the widows have not come forward with a class action lawsuit against Massey Energy is because they know that Massey Energy will use and has purchase the court system so that he won’t get any judgment against him. The widows are not the only ones who feel that way. The investors in his company feel the same way or the stock prices wouldn’t be raising.
When a person is charge with a crime, it is their right to have a speedy trial. I feel that the victims and widows of the survivors of accidents like this and like the Exxon Valdez have the right to a speedy judgment. I think that the appeals process should be limited so that it can no longer be used as a tool to dray our the court process for 20 plus years as what has happen in the past.
Jeff
This is so simple. There are “Three Strikes You’re Out” laws all over the country for people in the lower cast (miners, truck drivers, store clerks, etc….) who “break the law”. How about when a company like Massey “breaks the law” three times there is a real consequence. (01) The corporate charter is revoked. (02) The companies assets are sold off to the highest bidder, and (03) the top 50 executives of Massey go to prison. But, maybe this is just too simple.
The federal government should shut all Massey coal mines down, nationalize them and use the revenues to help out miners, their families and communities! As to Blankenship; INDICT HIM, PROSECUTE HIM AND JAIL HIS PROFIT LOVING ASS! At least he has committed negligent homicide!
JAIL TIME FOR NEGLIGENCE of all mine owners and executives
NATIONALZIE ALL ENERGY (Norway uses profit for the people. not the corp.)