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Look, something you need to know about West Virginia. First thing is you can dig a hole dam near anywhere and get coal. You don't have to dig all that deep either.
Every swingin' dick who can afford a dozer gets into the coal business sooner or later. Its like raising cattle, every dam fool thinks he can make a little money at it.
These small operators, and that is what the current mine disaster centers around, operate at the lowest possible cost. Most of them pay as much as the Unions do and to be absolutely honest about it many of them give the same benefits and are just as safe ... or unsafe, depending on your viewpoint.
They are all unsafe. Understand that right up front. They are dark of course, anywhere your head isn't pointed doesn't exist. What a lot of people don't know is that it is also cold and wet. It is always cold and wet. It is also dirty. You know coal mining is dirty but you have no idea how dirty it is. Everything is powered by electricity. So people get electrocuted. That happens pretty often.
Seams of coal can be thick. Mostly they are not. Picture this. Tomorrow you will work under your bed. You will go to work laying flat on your back and other than to go into an out of the way side passage to relieve yourself or eat lunch (watch where you squat down in both cases) you'll stay flat on your back all day. The space you will work in will probably be very close in size to the space under a pick up truck. Its noisy.
Do you know how they stop the choking coal dust from building up and exploding? They spray the walls with choking limestone dust. The miner's get to breath it either way.
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