E-mail from a coal miner's daughter

Got this from Mark C. Miller's list:

FROM XXXXXXXXXX:

Dear XXXXX: I am a coal miners daughter. Our family farm was located 45 miles from the Sago mine. This morning I called some friends of mine near Morgantown, 'WVA....they say...there were repeated violations against this mine...they say there were over 260 violations...and the safety men (who had been cut back by the owners)....they are in the pocket and hired by the mine operator.

The workers at that mine needed jobs, they new there were problems down there. But it was a matter of food and clothing for families....or no work at all...

The Owner of the mine has a very sordid past....a real money over human life kinda guy.
The miners who were outside, couldn't believe they didn't pump air down into the holes...that is what is always done...they didnt'......why:? They say they kept drilling holes but never put the air shafts down....

when the families heard they were alive...they started celebrating....they waited for 3 hours to hear where their loved ones had been taken....and then 3 hours later were told they were all dead...MOST WENT HOME TO GET THEIR GUNS...THEY HAD ENOUGH...DONT KNOW IF CENSORED TV WILL SHOW THIS OR TELL THAT STORY...BUT THEY INSIST ITS TRUE....AND KNOWING THESE FOLKS AS I DO....I ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE IT.

I personally think the owner wanted to have "some protection of his own before he told the truth",,,,,,he knew what would happen when they found out...This is a crime, this is an industrialized crime....and again, LAYS SQUARELY AT THE FEET OF THE BUSH REGIME...WHO HAVE LOWERED THE SAFETY STANDARDS DOWN TO NOTHING.


This is so terribly sad. --RV (I edited the name because of privacy)

My grandfather avoided a disaster at Sonman Slope only through luck and intuition - he walked off the job in the morning over safety concerns, and by the time he got home, there were miners dead.

Many members of my family fought for the rights and the safety of coal miners. I don't mean fight in the figurative sense. I mean, faced off against private security thugs with guns. I mean the kinds of fights that involve, according to family legend, appropriated mining explosives. The battle to win human decency for coal miners was long and brutal. People were shot. People were beaten. People froze and people starved. At the end of it, there was a union, and there was hope.

In recent years, the gains that they and the UMWU fought so hard for have been lost. Miners and the families of miners have been robbed of their rightfully earned benefits by court decisions favoring the bankrupt company bosses against the miners who have given their health and their youth for profits pissed away by poor management and wasteful operations. It has become cheaper for mining companies to paper over the holes in their safety records with blood and money than to keep the mines safe. I fear the mining companies and the laws are in free fall back to the early days. I do not fear for a moment that the miners will back down.

did these miners who just died belong to a union and why didn't the union do something? Or if they quit the union, why?

. . . highly-trained UMWA rescue teams put their own lives at risk to search for and bring out their non-union "brothers"!

... ruled that the miners and their families were not entitled to their pensions and benefits, and that the mining company could in essence renege on the contract. I don't remember what mine it was, I just remember reading it in the newspaper.

those f'ing corporatist Rethugs. THESE MAKES ME FURIOUS!

When will we have to take to the streets in order to survive??????

See Mega-Financier Wilbur Ross Owns the Mine Where Disaster Occured here:

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/03

Take a look at this, too:




Enough isn't enough for the greedy!

thing you read about happening in Russia and say, "oh, they don't care about their people over there...."



http://www.osha.gov/html/a-z-index.html#M

MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, is the federal agency responsible for inspecting coal mines for safety violations.

. . . you might want to check out the following articles, too:

Studio B Focuses On The 3 Hour Gap--Maybe Mining Health & Safety Violations Should be Emphasized?
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/04


"Fair and Balanced" FOX News Censors Bush Criticism During Mine Explosion Discussion. Hannity to Bush Critic: Just Shut Up
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/05

where these men are in a matter of hours... (how much can that cost) then the hole should be there BEFORE SOMETHING GOES WRONG. That's just the way I think though.... multiple entries and exits couldn't be a bad thing, could they??

. . . there are 3 union mines in my home-county . . . all 3 have multiple air and escape shafts. And . . .

By just typing that sentence, I remembered how, late one foggy night, I was awakened by strange lights and noises on the hill opposite our back bedroom window. I snuck out in my nightgown and hid behind a mock-orange bush, trying to figure out what I was seeing, and thinking, "A flying saucer landing?" Found out the next day (from a coal miner) that it was MSHA doing a "surprise inspection" of the air shaft/escape route. A few years later, that shaft was used to evacuate miners and to put out a fire.

So . . . yes, there are air-shafts that are designed to be used as escape routes. Trouble is: They must not be mandatory!

Your knowledge of this issue appears impeccable and I highly respect your take on this. I see you are from Marshall County--you know mining well. I worked in Marshall Co. for years and know the area and the people well. They are wonderful.

God bless the union miners for their unselfish aid at Sago! Let's all see that 99% of coal mines are unionized in the next few years. This is THE BEST way to make sure miners' interests are protected from irresponsible, unscrupulous mine operators.

. . . all of my life . . . grand-daughter, daughter, sister, niece and cousin of coal-miners. Both of my immigrant grandpaps lost their lives because of King Coal: one coughed himself to death with black-lung; and the other one died in West Virginia's third-worst mine disaster:

http://rootsweb.com/~wvmarsha/mine.htm

And . . . of course, I have an aversion to all irresponsible coal mining practices--including the intentional subsidence techniques of longwall mining that destroyed our house, barn, wells, springs, and pond in the mid-80s before there were any federal laws to protect surface landowners! (Like the MSHA laws enacted to protect coal-miners, the OSM laws governing longwall mining--that went into effect during the Clinton administration--have been relaxed to the point of being next to meaningless!)

Oh, well . . . we olde geezers and biddies fought the good fight while we were able. It might not have done us, personally, a lick of good; but, at least, there are some laws on the books that weren't there before. Getting those laws enforced is now up the younger generations.

Be good. Take care. Look both ways before crossing. Don't take any wooden nickels. Etc., etc.

Rachel Maddow was just talking about all the regulatory agencies in this industry and how mine owners and industry lobbyists have been running them for the B*sh maladministration...

lots of foxes with henhouse keys these days...

"They just don't value human life".

Meanwhile, the owner of this mine? He is a hero of the Free Market!

This is what my son says they were saying at the coal mines yesterday. Strictly rumors, mind you, but this is what they're saying.

First, he says that it took the mine officials three hours to say that the miners were dead because they didn't want to announce it before the SWAT team got there from Charleston.

Rumors also say that this mine had no mine-rescue unit and that they waited for five hours before requesting help. Consol sent six rescue teams from its northern WV division but they didn't get there until more than twelve hours after the explosion. Coal miners are trained to pound on the roof to let rescuers know where they are. These miners were only about 200 feet down and should have been easy to hear and locate in those first hours HAD THE MINE HAD LISTENING EQUIPMENT ON SITE.

that the Public Protection Lawyers (that would be "evil trial lawyers" to Limpballs and his ilk) will be the ones to step up to the plate and get the victims' families the remedies they're entitled to. Say this every chance you get.

I would like to see some stupid dittohead try to make the case that this is "one 'uh them there frivolous lawsuits".

on our own and foreign soil, since they took power. Bush put MSHA in the hands of the mining industry; Clinton admin was big on safety and enforcement, not he the Bush admin. This is not a walk link or connection. It is the truth. Americans CONTINUE to pay with their lives for letting these people take power.

I'm another coalminer's daughter. I feel certain that the company waited for security before telling the families. I know coalminers and how they respond. It was probably for the best that security was called in, but the company response is unforgivable.

There are lots of good paying non-union mine jobs available, but these men work in daily risk. It's a trade off - feed your family or face working in a very high risk situation. Few union mine jobs are available; and the Bush regime is trying to eliminate even more union mines.

showed for the poor, powerless in New Oleans and Miss.

I feel the national outrage from this and New Orleans is now spreading among the average working people (who before suffered silently alone)...but who NOW will no longer tolerate safety standards of NON-union protecton on the job that endangers and starves them daily.