Mine Workers to Lead Prayers, Protest at Massey Shareholder Meeting

by Mike Hall, May 14, 2010

Members of the Mine Workers (UMWA) and other union members and activists will march and rally in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, May 18, at Massey Energy Co.’s annual shareholder meeting to protest the company’s shameful safety record and demand that CEO Donald Blankenship be held accountable.

Since 2000, 52 people have been killed on Massey Energy property, according to the UMWA. On April 5, 29 coal miners were killed in an explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. The nonunion mine had a long record of safety violations.

Following Tuesday’s rally, UMWA President Cecil Roberts and Secretary-Treasurer Daniel Kane, holders of Massey shareholder proxies, will enter the shareholder meeting. Roberts, who has said CEO Donald Blankenship should be arrested, will call for his resignation and the defeat of three board members up for re-election.

Nine state pension funds or treasurers’ offices with some $64 million in Massey stock say because the company has “an abysmal safety record,” they will vote against the three Massey board members, including Richard Gabrys, who has been appointed to review the company’s safety failures and a related FBI investigation.

Tuesday’s action will follow a prayer vigil, led by Roberts, outside for the miners at Massey’s Richmond headquarters.

From 2009 through this year, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued 639 citations and orders at the Upper Big Branch Mine. According to the agency’s preliminary report on the Upper Big Branch blast, the citations were higher than the national average and also have been more serious.

Over 39 percent of citations issued at Upper Big Branch in 2009 were for “significant and substantial” (S&S) violations. In some prior years, the S&S rate at Upper Big Branch has been 10-12 percent higher than the national average.

In addition, the rate for repeated serious violations at Upper Big Branch was 19 times higher than the national average. The Upper Big Branch and five other Massey mines were singled out for increased safety inspections scrutiny by MSHA in August 2000 because of safety violations.

Earlier this month, Business Week reported:

The company is being investigated by the FBI for possible bribery of state and federal inspectors, according to a person familiar with the probe. More than a dozen current and former employees have been interviewed by the FBI.

We will live Twitter the Tuesday march and rally, and you can follow us on Twitter with the hashtag #firemassey or here at the AFL-CIO Now blog.

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