Breaking: Crandall Canyon Mine Owner Showed ‘Callous Disregard for the Law’

Source: AFL-CIO News Blog

The owner of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah where six coal miners and three rescue workers died last year showed a “callous disregard for the law and for safety standards, and hardworking miners lost their lives,” says Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The committee issued its report on the disaster today.

Kennedy says the U.S. Justice Department should begin a criminal investigation into the circumstances that led to the Aug. 6 collapse that killed six miners—whose bodies have never been recovered—and the Aug. 16 deaths of the three rescue workers.



The committee report also charges that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) failed to protect the Crandall Canyon miners by “rubber-stamping” a dangerous mining plan. Says Kennedy:

The committee’s investigation has revealed that the owner of Crandall Canyon mine, Murray Energy, disregarded dangerous conditions at the mine, failed to tell federal regulators about these dangers, conducted unauthorized mining and—as a result—exposed its miners to serious risks. MSHA also unconscionably failed to protect miners by hastily rubber-stamping the plan….This deserves a full criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.



Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/06/breaking-news-crandall-canyon-mine-owner-showed-callous-disregard-for-the-law/

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Sticking his face in front of every camera, lying about the "earthquake", and acting like he deeply cared about the families. It was all CYA BULLSHIT. He needs to go to jail.

You nailed it on the CYA, Im sure he spent more time pondering the lawsuits and damage to his business ahead of his loyal workers. They died tragically and he tried to be a media darling in the process. He can go straight to hell for the way he acted. I smelled BS the second I saw that mans face on TV.

with some bogus BS reason why there is nothing to investigate or Congress has no authority or .....fill in the blank.

:kick:
seen that asshole on local TV

first the trial please but I do admit I am so looking forward to the jury being shown the videotaped footage of his BS claims of it being caused by an earthquake.

This committee's chastisement may be the worst that happens to the guy.

have been in this man's shoes...he's not someone from media I would like...but we had a fatality at a mine and it was the most devastating personal thing have ever experienced. Rented equipment brake failed and we lost an incredibly wonderful young man. We wanted to close our company as so devastated. MSHA came and assholes were the worst people have ever encountered...apparently they get bonuses for most amount of fines they give. They gave us no penalties but will never forget the experience and sympathize with anyone who has to endure such after personal grieving.

He's the worst and he has what is coming to him coming to him.

Murray represents that there still are "town bosses" whether it be coal or tabacco or sugar or what have you. Watching him order around the Sheriff and the Government official who was supposed to be the one overseeing HIM was a stark an image as you need to see how our country our government has been bought.

And the finding is the mine owner showed a "callous disregard" for the law. From the facts you tell of your situation, it seems that it was indeed an unfortunate accident. Murray Energy, by contrast, has a track record of taking short cuts and compromising worker safety, and it appears that Crandall Canyon is one more in that long line.

Considering the owner's grandstanding and bluster at the time of the accident and his bogus claims of a seismic event, he was frantically trying to cover his own negligence and responsibility.

Rarely have I ever been angrier at my cathode ray tube. His bizarre grandstanding on issues of friggin' GLOBAL WARMING and how important the coal industry is, while there were lives in the balance, is one of the most putrid displays of inhumanity that I've ever witnessed.

He's a disgusting, vile, greedy individual and if I didn't hate him so much I'd have sympathy for his obvious mental illness.

It will be declined for investigation because they need the money to investigate steriod using ball chasers.

Nothing is going to happen to those "steroid using ballplayers" either. King george will pardon guys like Clemmons on his way out. Do you even doubt that?

And NOTHING is going to happen to Murray. As people have already said, he has the right connections. Guys like him are above the law.

More proof that there is no God. No penalties for being a criminal, just rewards. And more rewards.

The think of people as numbers. To him, a miner who dies on the job is just a statistic... yet he is considered to be just "businessman". Disgusting....

how we work, also. This is just another aspect of Bush's enslavement of the American workers.