‘Unwarrantable Failure’: Deadly Mines in China and America

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5806/unwarrantable_failure_deadly_mines_in_china_and_america/

Thursday April 8 12:48 pm


A mailbox near the entrance to the Upper Big Branch coal mine owned by Massey Energy Company in Montcoal, West Va., April 6, 2010, one day after an explosion killed 25 miners. The accident was the worst in the United States in decades. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)


By Michelle Chen

At a time when U.S.-China trade relations are as tense as ever, the twin tragedies in the mining industry in both countries were a stunning symbol of the shared struggles of Chinese and American labor. As a bulwark of the fossil-fuel-based economy, mining remains one of the most dangerous and dirtiest jobs in both developed and “emerging” economies.

But for a moment last week, China's mining tragedy—the sudden flooding of the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi Province—turned out to have a happier ending than the blast in the Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. A pang of envy might have shot through the hearts of the workers' families in West Virginia when they heard the news that scores of Chinese miners, who had managed to survive days without food or clean water for days, were being pulled to safety. In all, 115 people were rescued from the Wangjialing mine following the flood on March 28.

Back in West Virginia, the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine on Monday had left at least 25 people dead, one of the worst mining disasters in recent memory. With the stalled rescue-effort still dragging on, the outrage was palpable on Tuesday when Massey executive Don Blankenship showed up at a gathering of community members and got heckled by the crowd—a sign of both anger and resentment at the seemingly inescapable hazards of an industry that profits from the disempowerment of workers.

The two mining incidents took place in different hemispheres, but there was common ground between them—namely, the vacuum of oversight and the industry's lack of concern for workers' safety. Massey Energy, the people who brought you mountaintop removal mining, has a track record for wreaking havoc at both above and underground mines. The New York Times reports, "Last year, the number of citations issued against the mine more than doubled, to over 500, from 2008, and the penalties proposed against the mine more than tripled, to $897,325." Especially egregious is the rate of enforcement actions for “unwarrantable failure” to follow safety regulations, according to the Charleston Gazette.

(Workers are not the only ones under threat; the company was slapped with a $20 million penalty for environmental violations under the Clean Water Act in 2008)


FULL story at link.