W.Va. Coal Mine Blast Kills 6, 21 Miners Missing
UPDATE: The death toll in the explosion at the Massey Energy Co. Upper Big Branch mine now stands at 25 miners. Four other coal miners are unaccounted for. High levels of methane gas and carbon monoxide forced rescue teams to leave the mine early this morning. It is unclear when rescue and recovery efforts will resume. Holes must be drilled from 1,200 feet above to help ventilate the mine.
An explosion at a Raleigh County, W.Va., coal mine late this afternoon killed six miners and 21 other coal miners remain unaccounted for, according to news reports. The Associated Press reports that the blast occurred at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine
Mine rescue crews, including those from the Mine Workers (UMWA), were dispatched to the mine. There are no further reports about the missing miners.
The nonunion mine is operated by Massey subsidiary Performance Coal Co. In a statement, UMWA President Cecil Roberts says, “hearts and prayers of all UMWA members are with the families of those lost today. ” Read the rest of this entry »
103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College
Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is a registrar in Maryland. They’re all union members. And in a few days, all four will be graduates of one of the crown jewels of the labor movement: the National Labor College.
With a 46-acre campus just outside Washington, D.C., the nation’s only labor college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and grants bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The college evolved from the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, created in 1969, and now partners with the University of Baltimore and George Mason University for its graduate degree programs.
On Saturday, 101 students will receive B.A. degrees and two others will be awarded M.A. degrees, as the Labor College graduates its 11th class in a ceremony on the Silver Spring, Md., campus. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will give the commencement address.
