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Obama Orders Mine Safety Crackdown, Six Massey Mines on Serial Violators List
President Obama today ordered a federal safety blitz on coal mines with a history of safety violations, like Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch where 29 miners were killed April 5. He also called for stronger enforcement of current mine safety laws and closing loopholes “that permit companies to shirk their responsibilities.”
Speaking specifically of the West Virginia mine disaster, Obama says:
The people of West Virginia are in our prayers. But we owe them more than prayers. We owe them action. We owe them accountability. We owe them an assurance that when they go to work every day, when they enter that dark mine, they are not alone.
Owners responsible for conditions in the Upper Big Branch mine should be held accountable for decisions they made and preventive measures they failed to take.
Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts, who yesterday called for the arrest and jailing of Massey CEO Donald Blankenship, says Obama “hit the nail on the head.”
The issues surrounding the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine are very troubling, and we need to get to the bottom of what happened there. But we must go further and deal with the larger issue of serial “safety violators like Massey” that must be addressed.
Before addressing reporters in the Rose Garden, Obama met with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chief Joe Main and other MSHA officials who briefed the president on the latest in the investigation of the Upper Big Branch blast.
Obama told Solis to work closely with Congress to strengthen existing laws and also to consult with the U.S. Department of Justice “to ensure that every tool in the federal government is available in this investigation.”
The focus on mine safety, says Obama, isn’t “just about a single mine. It’s about all of our mines.”
The safety record at the Massey Upper Big Branch mine was troubling. And it’s clear that while there are many responsible companies, far too many mines aren’t doing enough to protect their workers’ safety.
Yesterday, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, released the list of 48 mines (32 coal mines and 16 other types of mines) identified by MSHA officials in August 2009 for increased scrutiny, but were not targeted due to unresolved appeals filed by mine operators. Upper Big Branch and five other Massey coal mines are on the list.
When a violation is under appeal, it does not count in the formula MSHA uses to initiate the tougher inspections and penalties, including closure of the mine for unsafe conditions. Miller says he released the list because
we owe it to the families of these fallen miners, all mining communities across the country, and the American people to ensure that all relevant information regarding potentially dangerous conditions at mines be made public, especially as investigations into the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine continue. Mine operators who game the system to avoid tough scrutiny by federal safety officials must be held accountable.
Click here for the list.
Obama said one tool to help save lives is the right of miners to refuse to work—without fear of reprisal—in unsafe conditions, even in nonunion mines. Roberts says he “applauds” Obama’s “determination that miners must have the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions.”
UMWA members have that right written into our contracts, but nonunion miners do not have the protection of a contract and are at risk of being fired if they refuse to work in conditions that threaten their lives or their health.
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8 Comments
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Here’s a $30 million dollar per year CEO of a company who defies the law, uses people like pawns to do his dirty work. The State’s Political party who’s in the pockets and bought off by Big Business should be jailed along with the CEO. The Massey Energy Mines should be closed pending all write up’s being cleared. I feel sorry for the people who’s worked all their life in the Mine’s and some only having skill in mining.// These people are to willing to take chances in order to save their jobs, and need help from outside. More teeth needs to be put into the mining Law’s. Above all the Mines need a good Union to look out for the people’s welfare.
It’s high time that we hold these common criminals accountable, and it’s great that the President intends to hold them to account for the deaths of those miners. Massey had absolutely no right to allow those people to get killed, especially after having received over 47 citations this year alone for safety violations, and unsafe working conditions. Massey’s board of directors should be jailed asap!
This is the tombstone mentality. Wait until someone is killed before action is taken. Why didn’t Obama do something about this earlier?
I’m sure that the carrot this @#$U% CEO holds over the miners head is that if the mine is closed for repair or upgrades, they will lose pay. NO COMPANY should be allowed to continue mining in a questionable area while their citation is under appeal. Any citation that questions the stability or safety of a mine should shut down that part of the mine until all appeals are exhausted and the danger is fixed. AND THE MINERS SHOULD STILL BE PAID IF THEY CAN’T MINE DURING THAT TIME. The fines are so little compared to the lives being risked. Massey has enough money to pay these miners during repairs and that should be done. And they should be paid during appeals as well without having to risk their lives. There is no need for this kind of senseless greedy tragedy. My heart goes out to those families, especially the ones who lost multiple family members during this last mine murder.
I can understand a corporation being able to shield its investors and CEO of financial ruin.
However, there is a big difference between shielding someone from financial ruin then from criminal wrongdoing. While I am not a constitutional scholar, I feel, very strongly, that it is unconstitutional to be able to set up a corporation or any other business entity so that it can shield anyone from criminal wrong doing.
To have corporations to be able to do this would allow corporations, such as Black Water Security, be able to assassinate people, such as President Barack Obama and let the people who would do this to be able to hide behind corporate protection and be above the law.
No one or corporation should be above the law in anything, whether it be civil or criminal.
I have walked picket lines before where private security firms had been hired. I have wondered how far those “storm troopers” would go it they could get away with it.
I was grateful that the local police chief came down and told the storm troopers that if anyone got hit with their two foot long “flashlight” that they would face prosecution for assault with a deadly weapon. After that, I notice that all the “flashlights” disappeared off of the storm troopers.
Jeff
Mr. Donald Blankenship, just been following the lead of the most powerful energy family here in America who doesn’t care about workers safety. For example, workers at Pacific Gas & Electric in San Francisco for many of years have been torture from lack of safety without media attention.
Thank you Mr. President and staff for bringing this criminal act to the forefront of the America people and around the world, to demonstrate that these gangster circles of friends need to put safety first before coal can generate electricity.
Yes, who do need electricity to power your homes and computers but, think about the safety of the workers? Don’t let your intellectual degrees override your pocket books because, it really making you looks uneducated.
Time to put some of these robber-baron scumbags in JAIL, starting with Shankenblip.
I would hope that Mr Donald Blankenship is held Fully responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners! Mining is extremely dangerous work, but Massey Energy Has Willfully Violated Mine Safety standards on numerous Occasions all in the name of PROFIT! The Profit Blankenship pushed for is called GREED!!!!!!!!!!!! at the expense of 29 lives This is utterly disgusting and Blankenship should spend the rest of his like in prison.