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24 July, 2006
Probes into deadly coal mine disasters in the Americas earlier this year are now coming into focus. And at two of the worst – the Sago mine blast in the US state of West Virginia on 2 January and the 19 February explosion at Grupo Mexico’s Pasta de Conchos No. 8 mine in Mexico’s Coahuila state – inadequate government safety monitoring and a reckless company safety culture are just part of the causes.
In Mexico, a report issued last week by the government’s National Human Rights Commission said, in 2004, safety officials of Mexico’s Labour Department identified 48 major problems in Grupo Mexico’s Minera Mexicana mine. The report added, however, that nothing was done to correct the deficiencies until just 12 days before the explosion. Sixty-five miners were killed in the February 2006 mine blast, the majority of them contract workers who were given no training and inadequate oxygen supply devices. Some 25 of the miners killed were members of Mexico’s Miners & Metalworkers Union (SNTMMSRM).
The Human Rights Commission stated that Labour Department officials tolerated carelessness and neglect on behalf of company safety representatives, and that they “had full knowledge of the working conditions of the mine where the catastrophe occurred (that) infringed on security standards,” said a statement from the agency. The government knew of problems with lighting and underground signal systems, as well as gas and oil leaks and a faulty smoke-release system.
In the US, a joint state and federal investigation into the Sago disaster that killed 12 miners has found that company officials had workers falsify documents. Testimony saw workers admitting they had signed documentation brought to them by bosses that they had attended safety classes and training, when, if fact, they had not. Sago is owned by the Wolf Run Mining Co., one of many coal mines in the eastern United States bought in bankruptcy proceedings by US-based investment house International Coal Group (IGC).
An in-depth investigation done by a Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also found that seals inside the non-union Sago mine’s safety chambers were poorly constructed, using materials unable to withstand the force of a methane explosion.
IGC attempted to bar safety officials from ICEM affiliate United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) from playing a role in the Sago disaster’s investigation, even though miners and family members of victims sought such help. Under mine safety regulations in the US, such union assistance in non-union worksites is permissible if so requested. IGC had private security forces physically stop UMWA safety officials from entering the mine property following the explosion, and the US government had to sue the company in order that the mine safety law was honoured. A US District Court ruled in favour of UMWA involvement late in January, but IGC appealed that ruling to a higher court. Last month, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s verdict.