China Coal Mine Deaths...Just Like the Good 'Ol Days in the USA... [View All]

[rfranklin]

For those of you who don't remember the history of the coal mining industry in the USA and the life-and-death struggle for unionization, this is what it was like and this is the vision that George Bush and his corporate cronies have for your nation--

166 Trapped In Chinese Coal Mine
Nov. 28, 2004


Rescuers were searching for 166 workers who were trapped in a coal mine in central China Sunday after a massive explosion tore through the shaft in what could be the country's worst mining accident in recent years.

Another 127 miners, many who were working near the entrance of the state-owned Chenjiashan coal mine in Shaanxi province, managed to escape after the early morning blast, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The accident came just weeks after another explosion in central Henan province killed 148 workers — to date the most fatal since 2000. It was sparked after mine operators failed to realize that extending the mine's shaft would greatly increase its gas level.

In Shaanxi, 41 workers were hospitalized Sunday, five with serious injuries, Xinhua said. Many were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, it said.

-more-

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/28/world/printable657934.shtml