I woke up this morning and found an article concerning the 25 miners presumed dead in West Virginia. Here is a small excerpt,
"MONTCOAL, W.Va.—The Massey Energy Co. coal mine where at least 25 people died in an explosion this week was cited by federal regulators for violating two safety regulations on the day of the blast, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration."
I had known Massey Energy Co. had a poor safety history, but that seemed to be a slap in the face to the grieving families of the miners.
I checked out some other sources and found this information in a New York Times article,
"In the past two months, miners had been evacuated three times from the Upper Big Branch because of dangerously high methane levels"
the mine, "as recently as last month was fined at least three times for ventilation problems, according to federal records.".
"In 2008, one of its subsidiaries paid what federal prosecutors called the largest settlement in the history of the coal industry after pleading guilty to safety violations that contributed to the deaths of two miners in a fire in one of its mines. That year, Massey also paid a $20 million fine — the largest of its kind levied by the Environmental Protection Agency — for clean water violations. "
"“No one will say this who works at that mine, but everyone knows that it has been dangerous for years,” said Andrew Tyler, 22, an electrician who worked on the wiring for the coal conveyer belt as a subcontractor at the mine two years ago.
Mr. Tyler said workers had regularly been told to work 12-hour shifts when eight hours is the industry standard. He also said that live wires had been left exposed and that an accumulation of coal dust and methane was routinely ignored.
“I’m willing to go on record because I am a subcontractor who doesn’t depend on Massey for my life,” Mr. Tyler said."
"copy/paste into url bar for article" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/us/07westvirginia.html
See, that's why you have unions, so you don't have to depend on outside contractors to protest safety conditions.
Not only is the American standard of life continually attacked by the Right and Big Business as "laziness, unrealistic, parasitic" etc. human life it’s self is also devalued.
Globalization has pinned the former imperial powers against the former colonies.
Post WWII numerous nationalist movements in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa,
“the areas where European/North American countries used to get materials for next to nothing, ex. Vietnam rubber plantations" have vanished.
With that theme, the American quality of life has slowly been degraded in competition with third world conditions. Due to that, "and the corporate guided influx of illegal workers/breaking of unions" the American laborer has been asked to lower their quality of life, all justified via "globalization" or "free markets"
to that of their competition, who themselves are fighting for better conditions.
Oh, and the water –isn’t- rising in the majority of countries. The IMF and WTO work with transnational’s to get their hooks into developing countries often run by despots or military juntas who they can pay off. The international agencies put all kinds of "riders" into their contracts "no unionization, no competition, no environmental legislation etc" and call the whole ring "capitalism".
Meanwhile back in the U.S. it isn't just the manufacturers that are suffering. White collar work/entry level positions have been outsourced as well to countries who are not building a middle class out of them. America has largely replaced these post grad position with service industry positions once thought of as part time teen's work. This mind set has not changed in relation to their real professionalism in the current economy. Many higher wage employers have slashed benefits as well in reaction to their new found justification.
Don't worry,
in about a month the mining corporations and Republicans will again start using the excuses of cost and government interference to loosen any new regulation which might come out of this.
Remember this,
those who say things like "it is their choice to work in dangerous jobs" obviously have never known, nor experienced a life of poverty in an economically depressed area.
More to the point, they are Social Darwinists, certain lives don't count as much as others,
and profit does come before certain people.
So, if you pray, pray for the miner's families.
If you don't pray, keep a keen eye on safety reform,
or more importantly the lack of it in the future.
"copy/paste into url bar for the song 'Dark as a Dungeon'"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRzX7wHrWmk
