37th Mine Death This Year (fox guarding the hen house again)

[Omaha Steve]

Full article: http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/03/37th-mine-death-this-year/

Bush & Co.

Aug 3

37th Mine Death This Year

A worker was killed on the job July 30 at a coal-preparation plant in Randolph County, W.Va. Jermey T. Heckler died when a pressurized tire exploded. He was welding along the tire’s rim when it exploded, according to news reports.

Heckler’s death is the 37th coal mine fatality in 2006. At this time last year, 10 miners had lost their lives. This the deadliest year in the nation’s coal mines since 2001 when 42 miners were killed on the job.

Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) records show four similar deaths to Heckler’s over the past 10 years. MSHA guidelines for working on mining equipment tires say the tires should be deflated because of the possibility of explosion.

In one of those four deaths, MSHA investigators faulted the company for not providing proper equipment for inflating tires. In another, the agency concluded a supervisor “engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence” when he instructed a miner to cut a slot in a brake drum, which ignited gases in the adjacent tire.

This year got off to a deadly start when 12 miners were killed following a Jan. 2 methane explosion at the Sago Mine in Upshur County W.Va. A report on that blast says the miners might have survived if seals used to block off the section of the mine where the explosion occurred had worked properly.

On Jan. 19, two miners were killed at the Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W.Va., after a fire broke out along a conveyer belt. Days earlier, federal inspector tried to close down a portion of the mine because of fire risk along the conveyer where the blaze began, but was overruled by supervisors.

An explosion killed five coal miners May 20, two weeks after the Darby Mine No. 1 mine in Harlan County, Ky., was cited for allowing the accumulation of excessive amounts of explosive coal dust.

Other miners have been killed in roof falls or were crushed by equipment.

[OzarkDem]

1. This is shocking

are the unions having any success in pushing for reform at MSHA?

[Omaha Steve]

2. UMWA files Freedom of Information Act request with DOL on Stickler duties

No update on this that I could find yet.

http://www.umwa.org/pressreleases/pressmain.shtml


For Immediate Release
June 12, 2006
Contact: Phil Smith
[phone]

UMWA files Freedom of Information Act request with DOL on Stickler duties

United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), seeking clarification of the duties of Richard Stickler, who has been hired as a consultant by DOL.

Stickler was nominated in September, 2005 by President Bush to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety but has been unable to achieve confirmation by the Senate.

"I am particularly interested in documents setting forth the terms of his appointment including its duration, his financial compensation and benefits, his job description, who he reports to and who reports to him," Roberts said in his letter. "Additionally, I would like a copy of any calender or other records showing his schedule of appointments, his expenditures, and any authority to incur expenditures on behalf of MSHA or the DOL."

Media reports have indicated that MSHA personnel are shuttling between MSHA offices in Arlington, Va. and the DOL's Washington offices to meet with Stickler on a daily basis.

In a separate statement, Roberts said, "If Mr. Stickler is involved in directing or developing policy at MSHA through this consulting role, then there is a serious problem. He has not been confirmed by the Senate and is not likely to be. He has no business being involved in critical decision-making at the agency."