Mine Owner’s Negligence Led to Blast, Study Finds(Massey)

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.”

The report, issued Thursday by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin, and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards.

But it was more pointed in naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in what was the worst American mining disaster in 40 years.

“The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20mine.html?_r=1&hp

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Criminal charges should be brought starting at the top!

as usual...

When is that bastard going to jail?

and start up operations with the same shitheels running it under a different name and, as usual in mining, nothing will change.

Until these companies are actually punished for breaking hundreds of regulations a month nothing is going to change, they make a fortune and only lose a few workers. In the grand scheme of things it's the way the mining industry has been operating since the first boss cave-guy sent a group of buddies down to see what they could find in that hole in the ground.

NOBODY will go to jail.

Just like the fucking banksters.

There must be actual punishment; not trifling fines but serious time in penitentiary for directing management, and revocation of corporate charters.

Unions try to keep their workers safe, and this is why they are needed, because of sociopaths like Blankenshit!

Depraved indifference.

And Massey Energy has to accept 100% union, permanently without any question.

Hell, all coal mine companies should be forced to use 100% union labor to ensure the maximum safety.

And stop cutting corners left and right in the name of profit.

We are NOT interested in profits, just the capability to survive the next day.

Fuck safety we need J-O-B-S!

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.”

The report, issued Thursday by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin III, and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards.

But it was more pointed in naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in what was the worst American mining disaster in 40 years.

“The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20mine.html?_r=2

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http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_apuuyw-wGsE/R_VquBt-7II/AAAAAAAAA-I/eI2fcPW9O7Q/s400/coal+reporter.jpg
Former Massey CEO and multi-million dollar Republican donor Don Blankenship

Sigh...

He's a cruel, greedy asshole.

Uh, I don't think the investigators quite understand the concept of "hubris." This was out-and-out greed, to the point of not giving a happy rat's ass whether 29 men came out of the ground, as long as the money came through. But if you can make it "a cautionary tale," then you don't have to go through a messy "trial" to "prosecute" criminally murderous "wrongdoing." Sure, there's 29 families without dads, brothers, sons, or uncles, but Massey Energy is still in business, and 100 years from now, what's going to be more important? No, chalk it up to "hubris" and be satisfied with the misfortune the gods on Olympus will someday visit on the miscreants. Probably. But let's leave all talk of "fines" and "jails" to the wild-eyed radicals who hate America and who hate capitalism.