Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comApril 2010 explosion at Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 men
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reminds me of China mines...make him work in his own mines for punishment
they should indict all those greedy pigs that were in management at that company when the blast occured.from the top down to the complacent cowardly supervisors who went along with the business as usual attitude leading to this disaster.its obvious they have no remorse so they ought to be held accountable legally and in civil court as well.
@!$%# rolls downhhill - and this man did nothing wrong. he lied - that is not a crime unless you're under oath and he tried to destroy documents - tried is the operative word - you can't penalize somebody for something they didn't do!
Well if the mine is doing well he gets the credit, same as if things go bad,he bears the responsibility.
God rest their souls,this is some of the most grueling and risky work on earth. Coal is still one of our main sources of energy, and will be for awhile, the ones who extract it should be protected from danger at all cost.
The prosecution of these bosses, will hopefully send a message to others in charge of the miners safety.
Memo to mine bosses: Learn from history. Treat your men with respect and recognize that they are human beings with families, not a disposable machine that is there only to help you reach your production quotas. For heaven's sake, take their well-being seriously!
But......but.......but that would cut into their profits!
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Big_Branch_Mine_disaster
The report claims that Massey used its power "to attempt to control West Virginia's political system." The report cites how politicians were afraid of the company because it "was willing to spend vast amounts of money to influence elections.
________________________
Apparently they are willing to spend lots of money to intimidate politicians, but not to protect their workers lives with proper ventilation. If you spend money to run the mine safely you don't need to spend money to influence elections to get politicians that will overlook safety concerns.
Ah...democracy in action. Good thing we implemented democracy in Iraq. And Obama told Russia that communism was a failure. It hasn't failed in China. People don't do this in China because they have the death penalty for similar crimes in China where people are willing to murder for corporate profit.
ELECTIONS??? It would have been so much cheaper to run their mines properly and safely so that there would be no need of politicians. What a concept!!! In addition to making sure that the mines were made safe as much as a mine could be, Blankenship could have tossed his money around in other ways such as improving the communities that served the mines.
Even his name sounds like death; synonomous with a pirate ghost ship.
And corporations giving disproportionate amounts of money to campaigns does not disproportionately influence our democracy? Hmm. Occupy Wall Street kind of knew what they were talking about.
No Alias Adam
CONGRATS !!!
At long last some one has hit upon what O.W.S. is all about. Thank You.
Obviously the wrong guy for the job.
OMG! The Feds are actually going to find someone to prosecute? Someone held responsible for their actions?
Holly crap Batman, this could lead to even banksters being held accoutable for their actions on Wall Street.
Ok, scratch that. I got carried away for a minute.
These guys are part of the 1% their not going to jail, they will pay a fine to satisfy the government and they will be going home. Money talks in the department of justice.
Slowly working up the food chain..... It will be a great day when blankenship is dragged away in cuffs.
Long overdue. Corporate executives need to be held criminally responsible for criminal acts. The long-accepted practice of handing out token slaps on the wrist to the company, while leaving the people who make the decisions untouched, needs to be stopped if the pattern of wrong-doing is going to be stopped.
I'd like to know if this is the same operation that killed a bunch of miners in Utah a few years ago; and those men are still buried there! It was too risky to try to recover their bodies after that mine collapsed.
If it's the same guy, then he has indeed established a pattern of gross negligence and killing honest workers for his own profit. They need to collapse a mine on him and force his family to surrender all their ill-gotten gains, and the high life they have lived from them...you know, reduce them to the life the rest of us have to live-stretching a dollar 'til it screams.
Nope, Crandall Canyon was/is operated Genwal Resources Inc., an operating division of UtahAmerican, which in turn is a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corporation.
The Upper Branch was owned by Massey Energy and operated by Performance Coal Company.
Depending on the source(s) used, the Upper Branch had accumulated between 600 and 1,500 violations. I'm sure that establishing a pattern based on those violations is more than possible.
So much needed safety regulations were in force, and the mine administration just decided to disregard them?
I agree! If corporations are people, they can go to prison for crimes, just like people.
I think it has always been common practice to let people die so the rich can get richer. Look at our military, they sent our young people off to die and for what. So rich people can get richer. Wars serve no other reason, they never have and never will. Its all about money. Pour people are in expendable, and who fights those wars, poor kids, Never rich people. Look at the likes of Little Bush, Cheny, Rummy, And all others like them. There parents paid to hid them from going to Nam, That was when you could hide out in the National Guard, like W did. Poor kids didn't have that option. One set of laws for the poor and one set for the rich. Been like that trough out time.
OREGON VET
I am with you guys!!!!
As the supreme court has ruled that corporations are people . This would make a terrific test case. Down side is they have all the money and resources to slither out from under it. But I would still love to see it come to court.
bob
Don Blankenship needs to be prosecuted too.
[sarcasm]Oh come now, we don't need any expensive regulations. Corporate "citizens" will do the responsible thing without any "watch dogs."[/sarcasm]
Apparently you people haven't learned anything from your elected representatives. The only good regulation is self-regulation. How does the saying go again? Money talks, bull$hit walks. Long live the GOP!
I have been waiting for the investigation of federal inspectors and others connected with the lack of enforcement. I would want to know why the mine was operating with all the violations incurred; were there others that were ignored? Was their a "partnership" between mine and the federals? Safety inspections are to allow the government to take action to avoid this very type of horrendously sad accident. From my viewpoint, it is both company and government that are accountable.
Industrial safety is similar to those strategic arms talks with the Soviet Union. Reagan in a rare wide-awake moment recited, "Trust, but verify." With the West Virginia coal mining companies the mantra will have to be, "I don't trust you lying bums at all, so you bet I'm goanna verify," and if that sounds like big government I'd argue that it was a well-deserved big stick.
Let's work toward a coal-free world of clean energy so we can give these people decent jobs. This is practically slave labor and a product of 19th century thinking. Some men die so others can make money. It's disgusting.
Dave I don't know where your from but mining here in WV is a pretty good job with good pay and benefits.If the mine owners were to operate the mines properly these jobs would be great jobs.
Dave-3502795
You forgot about a group of workers called SAND HOGS. These guys dig tunnels for trains, cars water and so forth. They expect to lose a man a mile while the project is under construction. These people need more safety support and tougher inspections just like our hard rock deep minors do .
bob
Finally! When will people realize that they have allowed business interests to force deregulation of companies and industries like this and the worker has become a disposable cost of doing business?
Deregulation caused this disaster to even occur. While I agree that deregulation has its place, why is this mainly a problem with industries that have the potential to cause huge amounts of pollution for us all (not just the mining industry) and safety issues for their workers? Because they are mainly in industries that have huge profits that are then used to buy lawmakers or bend them to their will.
It is a problem that will only get worse with business making virtual slaves of the workers in the end. The US is moving in this direction with its losses of jobs that can keep a family in the now disappearing middle class. Deregulation is responsible for this accident and the expectation of honesty in self reporting and self regulation is a sick joke.
We have China to thank for that. They will make there people work like slaves. We in this country have to stand up and be smart. The government both state and federal over correct all the time. Instead of changing laws to protect workers they always go way to far. And when they deregulate, they go way to far also. Always to far one way or the other. I owned a construction Company before 2008. The state came on to my job site to inspect it. The only think they could find was I needed to up date my Scaffolding, so I spent several hundred dollars to do what they said I had to do. When they came back out to reinspect, they said that I should just sell scaffolding because they were never going to pass it. So why not just tell me that upfront. Make me spend all that money for nothing. That's what is wrong government.
chuck
Sorry to say your China theory is all wrong. Deregulation was pushed through Congress by the captains & Kings of industry, along with the Big Bankers. It is called influence peddling, political action comedies , and special action groups. In other words Congress was bought off ( bribed to vote their way) if you will.
bob
"If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e., build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever) you need to ignore them and run coal".
The above is a quote from a 2005 memo to miners, supervisors and managers at the mine, by it's illustrious boss of bosses Don Blankensop.
Stick his ass in jail where he belongs.
These criminal companies never did learn anything from the Battle of Blair Mountain!! This is the reason coal miners need unions.
By starting with the supervisor, who it sounds like is helping out with the investigation, they may (doubtful) end up with a lot more higher ranking people within that company. They also need to find and punish the politicians who took money, or look the other way at the mis doings.
But keep voting for the GOP if you want accidents like this to happen more often. Wait until there is a huge accident due to less regulations or over sight, and more dead than what that mine produced.
If President Obama was still in office, the baggers would be shouting it's his fault. Well, this happened on Bush's watch, so is it Bush's fault, or Massey, inc fault? Will some bagger answer that question?
Good post and your are right, the people that took money to look the other way look the other way should all be rounded up and hung also. But they are no worse then Wal mart. Set back and not give there people health Insurance. Who picks up that bill when those people get sick, that's right the tax payers. But everyone is against the Health care reform act. Big business is who has fought that tooth and nail.
Business will always do the right thing.
Minions beware, it is you who hangs, the CEO just retires, the Board of Directors leave town, the retirement defunded.
But I thought corporations were our friends. I thought that government regulations were to blame. Mines don't need no regulations. The owners and managers always look out for their employees and the interests of the communities. Or so say the Republicans and Baggers!
Its all about the numbers, Nothing else. I worked for a company that all they cared about is the numbers. they stole from there customers, but if the people were smart enough to figure it out that they have been over charged, then they would give them there money back. But the company made $180,000.00 on the ones that couldn't figure it out. They don't care about stilling money to get that money. The Gm was hero. and get this, the company's motto was " Do the right thing" They treated the workers like dogs. But the managers were a different thing. I think all businesses are like that now. Make those numbers look good and get those bonuses. When I see Blankship being hauled off to prison I will be satisfied.
When Eisenhower warned Americans about 'A Military industrial complex, he didn't know the 'Rest of the Story' or envision the possibility of our current reality where our government and 'Big Business' are intertwined so completely that the interests, and needs of American citizens are ignored or subordinated to those who manipulate the unseen levers of power.
I wonder which SuperPAC Massey Energy and Performance Coal Company are funneling secret Corp dollars to support. Note that I don't wonder if they are donating to a SuperPAC; that's a given.
I worked for Massey Energy, should say I tolerated the bastards for a year, during my time in the mining industry, and I can say first hand that miner safety is a very low priority with the organization. If you are unwilling to cover-up, circumvent,short circuit and bypass safety measures you will soon be among the ranks of the unemployed, particularly if you are in management. Blackballing is still a common practice which is widely used. Scum of the earth!