No Union, Lose Your Life

[marmar]

from the WorkingLife blog:



No Union, Lose Your Life

by Jonathan Tasini
Tuesday 06 of April, 2010


As soon as I read about the mine explosion, my first thought was: bet it was non-union. Indeed:

The death toll from a blast at a coal mine here rose to 25 on Tuesday, federal safety officials said, making it the worst mining accident in the United States in 25 years.

Four miners were missing, and officials said it was likely they had also been killed in the explosion on Monday.

A recovery operation was called off early Tuesday morning because high levels of methane gas made the mine unsafe for rescuers. Workers bore holes into the mine to try to get more oxygen inside, an effort that was not expected to be completed for hours.

...Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, said that the mine was nonunion but that the union had dispatched a team to advise on the rescue and to help the families of the trapped or dead miners.

There is the union spirit: try to help where you can. That's American. That's patriotic.


http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14788

[jmowreader]

1. In mining, a union is no assurance of safety

Google "Sunshine Mine Disaster." The Sunshine Mine is in Shoshone County, Idaho. It's ALWAYS been represented by the United Mine Workers. In 1972, 92 miners died in a fire inside the mine.

[Brickbat]

2. True. It sure improves your chances, though.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

3. That was 38 years ago. I'd much rather trust the Union to protect me than miner owners.

[Brickbat]

4. Exactly.

Love your sig line, BTW.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

8. Go raibh maith agat !!

[midnight]

5. K&R

[LetsgoWings13]

6. its tough to make a mine safe for workers tho lol

[Unrepentant Fenian]

9. It is, but they can be made safer. We owe that much to the miners.

[LetsgoWings13]

12. yes we do. especially for the kind of work they are doing.

[Brickbat]

13. There are plenty of mines where this doesn't happen "lol".

And in places where it does happen, violations should be fined and enforced "lol".

[Bluebear]

18. I'm with you there, lol!

Maybe there wouldn't be all these dead bodies, lol!

[Brickbat]

21. Heh! I wasn't trying to be snotty,

but, you know, geez!

[Bluebear]

17. "lol"?? Why on earth is that funny

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Yeah but MINE SAFETY TEAMS are good for well SAFETY

non union mines don't have those.

[Jax]

25. lol...fuck you.

lol...

[bridgit]

27. Its more like mine owners & operators are too cheap - at the presser today...

You'd be hard pressed to find 4-5 other dudes that thought they knew all the answers yesterday and none of the answers today just standing round like unknowing deer in the headlights - but they do know what they have done - for instance...

Gov. Joe Manchin kept pointing to the "sliver of hope we still have" up on a plot plan of the mine system stuck to the wall behind him and calling beyond the already dead for someone else's brother or daddy to be alive which of course we do want to see happen - but the point is that if they've had that plot plan now for several months if not years...then why didn't they drill ventilation shafts months if not years ago?

Money, that they'd rather sponsor a tea party with then spend on mine & worker safety issues

[upi402]

7. See the film; Matewan ...a must see!

It's so sad seeing workers slam unions because the TV news does nothing but deride unions and unionism. MSNBC is the only one that offers a different view to be aired. And our Clinton-Democrats are no damn good whatsoever!

[amborin]

10. k and r

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. K&R Look at nations that never had a strong union movement...

...to see what life is like for the working class without one. God Bless the Union Movement.

[Bobbie Jo]

14. K&R

:kick:

[cbdo2007]

15. Right...they really need a Union to tell them how dangerous it is.

[ljm2002]

16. Oh for fuck's sake...

...the issue is not whether the miners need someone to "tell them how dangerous it is". I'm pretty sure they already know that.

The issue is, how to apply enough pressure to the owners so as to do what can be done to minimize the dangers. Non-union means no ability to pressure the owners. Union means you can. Simple as that.

[jmowreader]

23. Or...you get some bureaucrats who give a good god damn about labor

Take Hilda Solis, the current labor secretary. She named a union professional (IIRC the guy is a safety man) as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Bush's MSHA people are jokingly referred to as foxes guarding the henhouse. This brings me to the difference between Democratic and Republican foxes. You put Democratic foxes in charge of a henhouse, they eat the chickens and leave. With Republican foxes in charge, first they eat all the chickens. Then they start this massive Ponzi scheme where they sell Super Organic Free Range Cage Free Hand Gathered USDA Fancy eggs to buyers all over--cash in advance. They then go to Walmart and buy the cheapest eggs in the store, and repackage them in their special cartons. When someone inevitably catches the Republican foxes in Walmart buying a billion eggs, they blame the Democrats and claim to have found Jesus. And when someone asks the operative question, "why should someone have paid you $2.70 per dozen for Walmart eggs when they could have bought them from Walmart for half that?" the foxes accuse the questioner of hating America and all she stands for.

[Bluebear]

19. That was a really, really stupid thing to say.

[Touchdown]

20. We certainly don't need a union to tell us how stupid your remark was.

:eyes:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

24. That will be small comfort to my father...

...a lifelong union member who got backed over by a tri-axle dump truck because the contractor on the site failed to establish a proper traffic pattern and failed to police the safety of its subcontractors.

If you think a union is a guarantee of safety you're out of your mind. It helps, but it's not a panacea.

[Bluebear]

26. Union mine vs non-union mine? No comparison.

Nobody is saying accidents don't happen, witness your father.