7 November, 2011
The ICEM North American affiliate, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), issued a report on 25 October accusing Massey Energy and its managers of “industrial homicide” in the 5 April 2010 explosion that killed 29 non-union miners at Upper Big Branch in the state of West Virginia.
In the 90-page report, the UMWA said that Massey management “deliberately flouted” well-established safety and health laws in the US even after the mine was cited multiple times for violations by state and federal agencies.
The union cites many factors throughout the report that led to the deadly explosion, but concludes in stating “there is only one source for all of them: a rogue corporation, acting without real regard for mine safety and health laws and regulations, that established a physical working environment that can only be described as a bomb waiting to go off.”
The full UMWA report, called “Industrial Homicide,” can be accessed here.
The UMWA demands criminal prosecution for some 18 Massey Energy managers, including CEO Don Blankenship, who retired in December 2010, two months before the thermal coal company was sold to Alpha Natural Resources for US$8.5 billion. The report also recommends over a dozen changes in both state and US federal mine safety laws, mainly concerning tougher penalties on deviant mine operators and stronger protections for whistleblowers who report safety infractions.
Dan Kane
“Don Blankenship knew exactly what was going on at that mine,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “He got production reports several times a day. He saw the levels of safety citations and (safety) orders going up. But instead of taking the needed steps to correct the problems, they just kept on running coal.”
Added UMWA Secretary-Treasurer and ICEM Executive Committee Member Dan Kane: “It is unconscionable in the 21st Century for a mine to be operated in the manner that Upper Big Branch was.”
A fact sheet on the Massey’s horrid Upper Big Branch mine disaster of April 2010 is here.