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26 March, 2007
ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) issued a detailed safety report on the gas explosion at International Coal Group’s (ICG) Sago mine in the state of West Virginia. The report states unequivocally that the tragedy that killed 12 on 2 January 2006 at ICG’s non-union mine was preventable, and never should have occurred.
The 68-page report, which also contained 20 appendices, was released at a Washington, D.C., press conference in the US Capitol Building on 15 March. The press conference was attended by the two US senators from West Virginia, as well as a US congressman from the coal-producing state.
“Twelve men are dead who should not be,” stated UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “Their deaths came as the result of a series of bad decisions made by the company and the federal mine safety regulatory agency.
“Had the government done its job and (IGC’s) Sago mining done their job, all of these miners would be alive.”
UMWA President Cecil Roberts
The tragedy was the worst US mining disaster in years, and captured the attention of the American public in the early days of 2006. IGC’s management first reported that all the trapped miners were safe, bringing joyous relief to family members gathered at the mine site. Only hours later, the company admitted that the news was premature. It then took 41 hours to reach the miners. Only one miner was found alive, and he had suffered brain damage due to high levels of carbon monoxide.
Stated the daughter of one Sago miner at the UMWA’s press conference, “It breaks my heart to have to think that those men barricaded, wondering and waiting when they were going to be rescued, knowing now that they did not have to die. It’s not fair.”
The UMWA report cited several conditions that led to the deaths. It said the company’s substandard mine seals, the mine’s ventilation system, the lack of adequate oxygen devices inside mine shafts, no safety chambers, no two-way communications, no tracking devices, and no onsite, experienced mine rescue teams all played roles in the tragedy.
The union alleged the US Mine Safety and Health Administration allowed Sago’s owners to build coal mine seals using lightweight Oemga Blocks, rather than sturdier and explosion-proof mine seals, as specified under the US’s Mine Safety Act. The report also provides dozens of recommendations for tougher standards aimed at preventing such needless mine deaths in the future.
UMWA Sec.-Treas. Dan Kane
“We cannot afford to wait,” said UMWA Sec.-Treas. Dan Kane at the press conference. “The sooner we implement these recommendations, either as law or regulations, the more secure miners will be in the knowledge that their jobs are as safe as possible. As this report indicates, we’ve got a long way to go before we reach that point.”
Six days after the UMWA was released, ICG temporarily closed the Sago mine doe to a downturn in coal prices. IGC, owned by New York-based investor Wilbur L. Ross, is a seven-year-old coal company that has specialised in buying abandoned coal operations from bankruptcy proceedings, and then mining them. The company now operates 11 coal mines in the eastern US, all of them using non-union miners.