Mining Notes: Are Union Mines Safer? Plus, Calls for Ousting Massey CEO

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.fairwarning.org/2010/04/mining-notes-are-union-mines-safer-plus-calls-for-ousting-massey-ceo/

By Bridget Huber on April 13, 2010

Are union mines safer than non union ones? Over the last five years, accidents at three non-union coal mines in West Virginia have killed 43 workers, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports. Some safety experts say those accidents – and the safety violations that led to them — might not have happened in union shops.

The Massey Energy-owned Upper Big Branch mine, where 29 men died last week, was closed more than 60 times in 2009 and 2010 for safety violations, the Charleston Gazette reports. The mine had 50 unwarrantable failures to follow safety rules in the last year, WVPBS reports. Tony Oppegard, a former mine safety prosecuter who represents coal miners and their families in court, said union mines are safer.

I would say that there is no question in my mind that if this Massey mine had been a union mine, there is no way that they would have racked up 50 unwarrantable failure violations last year,” he said.

“The union wouldn’t have tolerated it. They would not have tolerated repeated violations of the ventilation system for instance, because that would be exposing their union brothers to harm.”

Oppegard says in non-union mines, anyone who makes safety complaints takes a risk of getting fired.

But the senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association disagrees, saying mine safety measures are implemented without regard to whether a miners is part of a union. “I would submit there’s not another industrial worker in all America that enjoys the protections that today’s coal miners do,” he told WVPBS.

Meanwhile, some investors who hold stock in Massey are calling for the removal the company’s CEO Don Blankenship, Mother Jones reports. Among them is the Change to Win Investment group, a labor-affiliated group whose pension funds hold stake in the energy company, and the comptroller of New York State’s retirement fund, which controls more than $14.1 million in Massey stock.