Mine Workers Help Power America
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Check out this video from the Mine Workers (UMWA) showing coal miners providing the energy that powers America.
We are proud of who we are and what we do. We power America and make a difference for our communities every day. We’re working families—just like yours.
Former Massey Official Guilty in Upper Big Branch Mine Case
The former director of security at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine was found guilty in federal court of lying to federal agents and destroying documents sought by investigators looking into the deadly blast. Twenty-nine miners were killed in the 2010 explosion.
Hughie Elbert Stover faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted on two felony counts of making a false statement and trying to cover up records in a federal investigation.
At press conference following yesterday’s verdict, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said:
This will send a very clear message that this is way too important an investigation to obstruct. We need to get to the bottom of what circumstances led to this explosion and who was responsible. Read the rest of this entry »
Mine Workers Report: Upper Big Branch ‘A Bomb Waiting to Go Off’
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There were many factors that led up to the April 5, 2010, explosion that killed 29 coal miners at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine, according to a new Mine Workers (UMWA) report on the disaster. But according to the report—”Industrial Homicide“—“there is only one source for all of them:”
A rogue corporation, acting without real regard for mine safety and health law and regulations, that established a physical working environment that can only be described as a bomb waiting to go off.
And that same company established a working environment where, operating through subterfuge, fear and intimidation, management prevented any opportunity for the workers to know the full range of dangerous conditions in the mine, or to effectively protest them even if they did know. Read the rest of this entry »
Ky. Working Families Not Resting on Big Lead in Gov.’s Race
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Union-endorsed Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is up two dozen points over state Senate President David Williams (R), his challenger in the gubernatorial race, which will be decided Nov. 8. Still, Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president and member of the Elevator Constructors (IUEC), warns that:
“Anything can happen between now and Election Day. We can expect a whole lot of money coming into the state to undermine our candidate. You can never rest until it’s over. If you do, you give the other side a chance to catch up. We are going to work as hard as we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The latest Louisville Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll has Beshear, who also earned the state AFL-CIO endorsement in 2007, leading Williams by 24 points.
Four years ago, Beshear unseated Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Jeff Wiggins, a United Steelworkers member (USW) and president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council, says, “Williams is another Fletcher.”
‘Time for Working Class to Have A Voice’ in Budget Debate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Fed up with inaction and partisan-political game playing in Washington, Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to call upon Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop the partisan politics and pass a budget that works for all working families, not just millionaire CEOs. They called out their senator for putting the 2012 elections ahead of the needs of his own constituents who would be impacted by deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
A delegation that included Rev. Charles Elliott, local voters and United Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts attempted to visit McConnell’s office, but when all but two were turned away by security, Roberts joined the crowd marching around the federal building while Rev. Elliott and a local senior citizen met with staff.
In nearly 100 degree heat, the crowd prayed and sang, marched and rallied for a humane federal budget with sane priorities while the pair met with Sen. McConnell’s staff. Roberts said “It is time for the working class to have a voice in this debate.” He called upon McConnell as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to stop holding the economy hostage. Even as the rally was coming to a close, another round began arriving on their lunch hour, with signs calling for no cuts to the critical programs that Kentucky families need. Read the rest of this entry »
UMWA, Coal Operators Reach Tentative Pact
The Mine Workers (UMWA) has reached a tentative 5.5 year agreement with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA), the union announced this morning.
The 125 UMWA locals covered by the BCOA agreement will vote on the contract Friday. Details will not be released until contract explanation meetings are held at each local Wednesday. If the agreement is ratified, it will take effect July 3.
UMWA President Cecil Robert called the contract talks “a long and intense process.”
We had many issues to confront, especially with respect to our pensions, health care and wages. But through the strength and solidarity UMWA members have historically demonstrated, we were able to meet those challenges.
Massey Execs Tied to Upper Big Branch Blast Keep Jobs in Merger
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The former Massey Energy Co. chief operating officer who invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to be interviewed by the West Virginia commission investigating the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 miners, will play a role overseeing safety at the corporation taking over Massey’s mines.
He is just one of several former top Massey officials with Upper Big Branch connections who are moving to Alpha Natural Resources after shareholders for both companies yesterday approved the merger.
The recent report by the Governor’s Independent Investigation Panel (GIIP) found that the:
responsibility for the Upper Big Branch Mine lies with the management of Massey Energy. The company broke faith with its workers by frequently and knowingly violating the law and blatantly disregarding known safety practices.…Massey exhibited a corporate mentality that placed the drive to produce coal above worker safety.
Yesterday in a letter to Alpha CEO Kevin Crutchfield, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rep. Lynn Woolsey Lynn (D-Calif.), senior members of the House Education and Workforce Committee, questioned Alpha’s decision to retain Chris Adkins, former Massey chief operating officer and senior vice president, former General Counsel Shane Harvey and Baxter Phillips, who served as Massey CEO after Donald Blankenship resigned in December and prior to that as Massey president.
In an April 15 letter to Alpha and Massey employees, Crutchfield said that Adkins would “spearhead the implementation” of Alpha’s safety program known as “Running Right.” In the letter Miller and Woolsey write:
We are troubled by indications that as Chief Executive, you could think that miners are fairly served by perpetuating Massey’s safety culture for even one minute.
Study Finds Unionized Coal Mines Substantially Safer
A new study shows that miners in unionized coal mines are far less likely to be killed or injured on the job than miners in nonunion operations. The independent study funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that “unionization predicts an 18-33 percent drop in traumatic injuries and a 27-68 percent drop in fatalities.”
The comprehensive study, conducted by Stanford University law professor Alison D. Morantz, the John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School, looked at coal mine fatality and injury statistics from 1993 to 2008.
Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says the study “quantifies the profound differences in safety underground coal miners experience when working union versus working nonunion.”
He points out that recent mining disasters, including the blast at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine that killed 29 miners last year, the Crandall Canyon (Utah) disaster that killed nine in 2007 and the Sago explosion in 2006 that killed 12 miners, have all been in nonunion mines.
The simple truth is that union mines are safer mines, and this study proves that.
Report: Upper Big Branch Miners Died Because of Corporate Risk-Taking
Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) coal mine exploded April 5, 2010 because the company operated the mine in a “profoundly reckless manner and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking,” according to an independent report on the disaster commissioned by former W.Va. Gov. Joe Manchin (D).
The report by Davitt McAteer, former head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, says:
The disaster at Upper Big Branch was man-made and could have been prevented had Massey Energy followed basic, well-tested and historically proven safety procedures….Massey exhibited a corporate mentality that placed the drive to produce coal above worker safety.
It found that a combination of methane gas and huge amounts of coal dust in the poorly ventilated and improperly monitored nonunion mine turned a small ignition into a massive explosion that roared through the underground tunnels.
Mine Execs Want to Police Themselves on Safety
The day after federal mine safety officials announced a series of “outrageous” safety violations at a Massey Energy West Virginia coal mine, mining industry officials were on Capitol Hill calling for fewer federal inspections and a voluntary safety program.
At the hearing before the Education and Workforce’s Workforce Protections Subcommittee, the Republican majority allowed just one worker’s witness, Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts, while three mine industry executives testified. Said Roberts:
The disaster at Upper Big Branch, as well as the other deaths and illnesses that continue to plague the mining industry make it clear that Congress must do more to protect miners. Operators should be required to make better efforts to prevent illnesses and injuries in the first place. After all, the mining industry has shown time and time again it is not very effective at self-policing.
