“Oh Say, did you see him; it was early this morning.He passed by your houses on his way to the coal.He was tall, he was slender, and his dark eyes so tenderHis occupation was mining, West Virginia his home
It was just before noon, I was feeding the children,Ben Moseley came running to give us the news.Number eight was all flooded, many men were in dangerAnd we don’t know their number, but we fear they’re all doomed”
- Jean Ritchie
Coal mining is dangerous business and the people of the Appalachian Coalfields, from Tennessee to West Virginia to Pennsylvania, have come to expect disasters out of the mining industry. Mining is a job that’s full of risks and packed with hard work. Miners have come to be proud of the work that they do which truly has had a great role in powering the United States for more than the last century. It’s been work that’s populated Appalachia with amazing people but has kicked up a lot of coal dust in the process all over our great state of West Virginia.
After 9/11, where I was less than 10 miles from the Pentagon and remember hearing fighter jets & helicopters flying over my house throughout that tense night. I never thought I would feel that tragic emotion that brought anger, anticipation, fear, mourning, and pride together into one horrendous stomach ache again. Then came the disaster at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine.
I could not work all week. I could not stop refreshing the WSAZ news page and the Coal Tattoo Blog for updates. I could not get my mind off the basic question of whether there is good in the world where 29 hardworking men are killed because of Massey Energy’s disregard for miner safety. I could not get off the phone talking with students I work with and my own family members who were grieving like I was for these men and holding out hope that the four “missing miners” would be found alive. They were not. And we continued to mourn through the weekend.
Both my great-grandfather and grandfather helped to pull 11 bodies out of the Nellis mine which is a hair under 33 miles away from the Montcoal mine. On November 8th, 1943, which was a Monday, his family was watching a movie in Whitesville and they were rushed out of the theatre to Nellis. His Mother and sisters were sent home to pray for survival, his father hurried down in the mine to search for life and my grandfather stood sentry at the mouth of the mine with not much to do but hope to see those men walk out of the mine. He was 13 at the time and he saw those 11 bodies come out of the mine in a railcar without a breath among them.
He is now the ripe age of 80, and once again mourning, this time for the 29 miners that were killed in the Upper Big Branch mine. He and no one in the coalfields should have to witness a disaster like this and be reminded of a disaster they lived through 67 years ago. We have the means and technology to make these kind of massive disasters a thing of the past that exists only in our memories and history books.
Worker deaths should not happen, and we should be pushing to prevent them whenever possible. The debate becomes about what is the safest method of mining coal, since we will be mining coal for a long time coming. Even if we quickly transition from burning coal for electricity, there are a ton of uses for coal (including using metallurgical coal for the production of steel which is needed for wind turbines) which will keep it as part of Appalachia’s economy. For a point of information, the Upper Big Branch mine was mostly a metallurgical coal mine and the coal mined is used for steel-making, rather than electricity, production. Massey is known to export their metallurgical coal overseas, so the 29 miners probably lost their lives not to power the re-industrialization of the United States with renewable energy, but to power the industrialization of countries like China and India. So, even if we run a completely renewable energy economy, we need to keep a focus on how we can mine coal in the way that’s most beneficial to the communities under the safest possible conditions.
Flying in the face of these horrible realities,there has been the disturbing development that Mountaintop Removal proponents have been coming out with recently. From Don Blankenship Supporters to Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, there has been an effort to use this horrible mining disaster to spread support for strip mining and mountaintop removal.
Countering this opportunistic assertion is the main point of this piece.
Nevermind the horrible leveraging of this disaster to increase support for the form of mining that employs the least number of people and causes the most damage to Appalachia. While there is truth in the statement that surface mining is safer for workers than underground mining, the Blankenships and Capitos of the world would have you believe that everything is hunky-dory and safe as grandma’s apple pie on a strip mine.
The way that the Blankenships of the world make the argument is that we could simply shift from underground mining to strip mining is a total oversimplification of the realities of mining. The Upper Big Branch mine was more than a thousand feet underground. To get that coal, it takes underground mining, plain & simple. I know that Don Blankenship knows more about coal than I do, he’s just more comfortable with lying than I am. So, we need to talk about what the safest ways of mining are and what makes the biggest impact on increasing worker safety.
As I’ve heard more of the pro-mountaintop removal opinion getting out there, I became more interested in knowing the facts. I’ve been hearing that strip mining was dangerous work, but I’ve never really known how dangerous. I came to the point of wanting to counter the claim that the Blankenships of the world were making, but I didn’t know the facts. So, I started crunching some numbers, making excel spreadsheets and asking friends for help. What I found didn’t really surprise me, but it gave a sense of concreteness to talk about how important unions are to worker safety.
What I found was that union strip mining was the safest for miners and that non-union underground mining was the most dangerous. That said, there is little way that we can or should be using that as a justification for more strip mining. Seeing as how coal that’s mined a certain way is generally mined that way for whole host of reasons, the Blankenships of the world are oversimplifying it. If we look at the two forms of mining independent of each other, because strip vs underground mining is generally not interchangeable, we can easily see that whether a mine is union or non-union is incredibly important to worker safety.
I am using the VERY basic ratio of worker deaths per 10,000 miners to create four statistics which compare both strip vs underground mining and union vs non-union mining. This leaves out a ton of really important information, like worker injury rates, black lung and silicosis, effects on the communities around the mines, the different safety rates of the different forms of underground and strip mines, the different safety rates at different companies, etc etc etc. But, what this analysis does do is further the fact based conversation about what the safest forms of mining are in the real world.
Here are the stats that I developed using statistics from 2002 – 2008 (it’s pretty obvious what the stats would be for 2010 with the Upper Big Branch disaster, but it’s too early in the year for good statistics to be out there). The following chart summarizes the comparisons that I wrote about earlier…
| Deaths Per 10,000 Underground Union Miners | Deaths Per 10,000 Underground Non-Union Miners | Deaths Per 10,000 Surface Union Miners | Deaths Per 10,000 Surface Non-Union Miners | |
| 2002–> | 2.02 | 5.12 | 0.00 | 4.22 |
| 2003–> | 4.37 | 4.24 | 0.00 | 5.73 |
| 2004–> | 2.84 | 4.72 | 1.43 | 4.12 |
| 2005–> | 2.71 | 3.94 | 0.00 | 2.37 |
| 2006–> | 3.53 | 1.04 | 1.54 | 2.47 |
| 2007–> | 1.49 | 6.68 | 0.00 | 3.22 |
| 2008–> | 2.23 | 3.35 | 0.00 | 5.47 |
| Average–> | 2.74 | 5.55 | 0.41 | 3.88 |
So, what you can see is that in each form of mining, union mining clearly makes for safer mining than non-union mining. Underground non-union mining is the most dangerous forms for five out of the six measured years. Underground union mining is about even with non-union strip mining in terms of worker safety – with non-union strip mining having a higher worker death rate than union underground mining.
The most important thing is for unions to be able to organize mines, whether they be strip mines or underground mines. In almost every case, union mines are safer than non-union mines. Worker safety depends on the unionization of the workplace, not on a largely fictitious choice between strip & underground mining.
The United Mine Workers of America have been longstanding leaders for coal miner safety. One of the most important things that the media is missing in covering this disaster has been the discussion about the UMWA. The UMWA had 3 different attempts to unionize this mine and Don Blankenship personally visited this mine to break the union drive. One drive in particular had more than 2 out of 3 workers signed onto a union card, but the official vote failed. If we had the Employee Free Choice Act as law, the Upper Big Branch mine would be a union mine as 2/3 of the workers supported a union before they were intimidated. We need to see this law passed so we can see safer mining through a unionized workplace.
When workers knew Blankenship would have them fired if they voted for the union, they stepped back from voting it in. Workers need a united voice in the workplace. We can have the best regulations in the world on the books but if workers are not organized to be able to speak up – those regulations are worthless. As far as I’m concerned, miner unionization is the best possible solution to preventing disasters like this in the future.
We’ll be mining coal for a while and we need to be real about what makes the biggest impact on worker safety in the mines. We don’t need another Monongah (1907, WV, 362 killed), Farmington (1968, WV, 78 killed), Sago (2006, WV, 12 killed), Crandall Canyon (2007, UT, 9 killed), or Montcoal (2010, WV, 29 killed).
I hope the words that Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall issued in 1968, “let me assure you, the people of this country no longer will accept the disgraceful health and safety record that has characterized this major industry,” and the words of President Barack Obama forty-two years later, “I refuse to accept any number of miner deaths as simply the cost of doing business,” will one day ring true and we can at least, today, have an honest discussion about what the safest ways to mine coal are.
http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201004220709
MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere says families got a phone number to
anonymously report anything they think might help the investigation. She
says that’s never been done before.
The tip line — (304) 256-3525 — is answered Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. The public can also use it.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/04/23/more-bad-news-another-w-va-miner-killed/
A 28-year-old coal miner has died from injuries received in an accident Thursday night at International Coal Group’s Beckley Pocahontas Mine in Raleigh County.
The miner became pinned between a continuous mining machine and the mine wall, Jarrett said. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died this morning during surgery, Jarrett said.
My name is Stanley Sturgill and I live in Lynch Kentucky the most southeastern town located in Harlan County Kentucky. Lynch is a coal mining town and was home of U.S. Steel Mining from around 1918 until the mid 1980′s when the mining interest was acquired by Arch Mineral from out of St. Louis. Recently all our remaining coal seams have been purchasted by Massey Energy. This news saddened me although I am now retired from coal mining, it saddened me because of all the young men and women that still must work in the mines to make a hard earned non-union living. Please stop and read the following article that I wrote and had published in our local county news paper on April 21, 2010. The Harlan Daily Enterprise.
Recent news to Harlan county, whether you love it or not, Massey Energy is in the process of acquiring Cumberland Resources mining company for an estimated $960 million dollars. This would include Black Mountain Resources and other mining companies that employ hundreds of underground coal miners from Harlan county and surrounding counties, also miners from some of our border states.
During a recent combined meeting (April 12, 2010) of the Tri-City and Harlan County chambers or commerce Black Mountain Resources Vice President Ross Kegan stated he was “optimistic about the company’s future.” Kegan said, “It’s our intention and Massey’s stated intention for us to continue doing what we are doing, and their desire has been for us to actually expand.” Other information included Massey expects to sell between 10 million to 12 million tons of coal this year. WOW!! my calculator reads ERROR when I try to tally profits from these kinds of sales. That is really good news for all in the county who can be as optimistic about the deal.
I, myself will have to wait and see before I can be that optimistic about a coal company, with the history Massey Energy has, taking over all our local coal mining operations. We are all still stunned by the recent tragedy at the Massey Energy, Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia and hopefully the investigations into the accident will determine exactly what caused such an event. Thus far past violations issued at the mine indicate the mine had many safety problems. Massey Energy, CEO, Don Bankenship (not misspelled) pulls no punches when it comes to producing coal and even states in a past memo to his miners to not stop production in order to build ventilation controls or anything else. The miners have no choice but to do as they are told by the company leader. The outspoken Massey Energy CEO also touts that his mines, with the exception of one prep plant, are all UNION free. This is a sad situation and some of my reasoning for not being so optimistic about the future of our area, but most important the future of our underground coal miners of Harlan county.
The 1977 Coal Mine Act states: a representative of the operator and a representative authorized by his miners shall be given an opportunity to accompany the mine inspector during the physical inspection of any coal mine. Most non-union mines, if they even have an authorized miners representative, is usually the representative of the company, (i.e. the mine foreman, the section foreman or a company person that is on record as the miners representative). The miners usually have no say in this. This condition leaves little doubt as to how the coal miners will be represented. In many cases miners that have safety complaints must make these complaints known anonymously to state and federal safety agencies. About all mines in Harlan county are, at this time, non-union.
If the acquisition of Black Mountain Resources and other operations in our area, by Massey Energy is eventually completed I most sincerely hope and pray that Massey will have finally learned from the West Virginia tragedy and put the safety of our miners first
instead of the revenue from a ton of coal being more important.
I suspect I am now going to offend many people throughout our county, but I also know for a fact, there are numerous others that are in total agreement with me and have expressed the same sentiments. Coal mining is how this county is able to exist, most everyone will agree on this. We are being taught now, “Coal is what keeps the lights on.”
Stop here!! I do have a problem with this coal industry logo being forced on me. If it were not for the Coal Miners mining the coal, the lights would not be on anyway.
You may agree or disagree with me, but in your heart you know the coal miners of this area have lost more money and benefits since the UNIONS were driven out of our area and are not compensated any where near what they are entitled to. It is no wonder that Massey and other companies are trying to get to our valuable metallurgical coal to send all around the world, while reaping unheard of profits. It’s not rocket science, it’s really quite simple. The companies can mine the coal for practically nothing with our under paid miners and roll in profits galore. This area is an oasis for mining companies.
I’ve worked at union and non-union coal mines throughout my 40 plus years in mining before I retired. I’ve seen miners treated all different ways, some good but more often not so good. I’ve talked to many miners of this area and most all agree they are being short changed. Not only in money and benefits, but most importantly, in keeping their mines safe and having a safe work place at all times. Most all are afraid to make their safety complaints public and I can surely understand this. They fear loosing their jobs. The miners of this area should not have to live with these kinds of horrors hanging over them. Could you concentrate on your work if you felt unsafe at your work place, but could not do anything to change the conditions, for fear of being fired?
The miners should be up held and compensated accordingly for mining the coal and keeping the lights on. The coal companies are surely well compensated for their product.
Don’t you feel the miners deserve the same?
I hope and pray when Massey Energy does conclude their acquisition of all the mining of our area the miners will finally band together and request representation from the United Mine Workers of America . If the miners would do this maybe at last they could have a real representative of the miners and a safety committee that they can go to with any safety complaint they may encounter at their work area or mine and not be chastised for doing so.
Am I a “Friend of Coal?” No I am not. A lump of coal is no more than a black rock that will burn, although when I was a kid I did see superman on t.v. crush a lump of coal, with his bare hands, and make a diamond out of it. All jokes aside, what I am is a true, “Friend of the Underground Coal Miner”.
In conclusion, you may disagree with me, you may curse me, you may call me obscene names, you may even shake your fist at me, I don’t care. The bottom line is our coal miners are being short changed all way around. They are not paid near enough for the dangerous jobs they do. They are not provided any where near the extra benefits they should be receiving for them or their families. Most importantly the coal miner deserves a safe and healthy environment to work in each day he works in the mine.
The coal companies definitely want all they can get, their stock holders require it. I think it is time the coal miners get what they truly need.
Many people have forgotten and some may have never known, but the 1977 Coal Mine Act states: The first priority and concern of all in the coal or other mining industry must be the health and safety of its most precious resource–the miner.
I hope our local coal miners realize this because it is very true. I hope everyone else realizes the same. I hope our miners demand unity and band among themselves because they are our most precious resource.
Stanley Sturgill-Retired Coal Miner and Federal Coal Mine Inspector
Lynch, Kentucky
My father was on the rescue team that pulled those men out of Armco’s Nellis Mine. He worked at that mine. He lost a lot of friends in that mine disaster. He talked about it often throughout his life. You could still see the sadness in his eyes after so many years.
great post Danny!
It would be really amazing to include black lung into this, so many things that kill workers end up doing so years later.
Do you know how many union strip or MTR mines are out there?
I also really feel like the UMWA ought to be opposing surface mining since its a company practice to lay-off workers by and large.