by Jonathan Hiskes
The coal and oil
industries are really trying to outdo each other these days. Massey Energy, the
criminally unsafe coal mining and intimidation company, refuses
to give workers time off to attend the funerals of friends who died in
Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, the Washington Independent reports:
Massey Energy, the Virginia-based coal giant that runs the
Upper Big Branch Mine, has denied time off for miners to attend their friends’
funerals; has rejected makeshift memorials outside the mine site; and, in at
least one case, required a worker to go
on shift even though the fate of a relative—one of the victims of the April 5
disaster—remained unknown at the time, according to some family members
and other sources familiar with those episodes. In short, the company might be
taking heat for putting profits and efficiency above its workers, but it
doesn’t appear to have changed its tune in the wake of the worst mining tragedy
in 40 years.
“They told my
husband, ‘You’ve got a job to do and you’re gonna do it,’” said the wife of
one Massey miner, referring to the funerals he’s missed this month for friends
who died in the blast. “What else are we
gonna do?”
Such anecdotes aren’t easy to come by. Massey—the top coal producer in Appalachia—has built a reputation
of intimidating its workers into a type of lock-step compliance that most often
takes the form of silence, particularly when the subject revolves around
safety in the company’s mines. The reason is clear: Massey is the economic engine in parts of West Virginia, and there’s a lingering fear among
many workers that any grumbling could leave them unemployed. Some former
employees said this week that the reluctance of Upper Big Branch miners to
discuss the conditions inside those tunnels prior to the blast is no accident. [Emphasis mine.]
Bet the offshore
drilling folks are hoping this takes some attention away from the rig that
collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico today.
Our running tally of fossil-fuel
industry disasters of late:
The oil rig explosion,
which injured 17 workers, left 11 missing, and is spilling crude oil and
possibly diesel into the Gulf.
The awful coal-mine
explosion that killed 29 men under the criminal safety record of
Massey
Energy CEO Don
Blankenship.
The crash
of
a coal freighter into the fragile Great Barrier Reef as it tried to
take
a shortcut from Australian mines to Chinese furnaces.
The Tesoro oil
refinery explosion that killed five workers in Washington state.
The spillage
of
18,000 gallons of crude oil from a Chevron into a canal in the
Delta
National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana.
Remember, the people
making money off these businesses are the ones fighting hardest against a
clean-energy bill. They say this is the best we can do.
Related Links:
Hey, look: Denver has a bike-sharing program
Burning oil rig sinks into Gulf of Mexico
Earth Day: Profiling Coal’s Eco Heroes