West Virginia explosion traps 13 coal miners

State officials in West Virginia have confirmed that 12 miners were killed in the massive explosion that ripped through the Sago Mine on Monday morning.

The horrifying news came only hours after the miners’ families had been told, and CNN prominently reported, that all but one of the miners had been found alive and were being pulled up to safety.

Jubilation erupted in the mining community when the initial rescue report came through. CNN broadcast scenes of what it claimed to be ambulance vehicles ferrying survivors to local hospitals for treatment.

However, within three hours the families were told that 12 miners were dead, and that the one survivor had sustained serious injuries.

Ben Hatfield, president of the International Coal Group, stated: “The initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors. That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center. It quickly got out of control.”

The false reports of survival served only to intensify the anguish felt by the families when the later reports of the miners’ deaths emerged.

The disaster began with an explosion early Monday morning, as the first shift of miners entered the mine, which had been closed Sunday for the New Year holiday.

President Bush issued a perfunctory statement on Tuesday, saying the nation was praying for the men and pledging federal help in the effort to bring them out alive. “May God bless those who are trapped below the earth,” he said.

The hypocrisy of Bush’s remarks is highlighted by the role of his administration in gutting mine safety inspections and promoting the downsizing, deregulation and unlimited profiteering that have contributed to this tragedy.

A number of those in the grim vigil outside the Sago Mine have remarked bitterly over the fact that workers in the impoverished Appalachian coal fields are forced to risk life and limb every day simply to earn enough to support their families.

There have been 149 fatalities in mine accidents nationwide and 38 in West Virginia in the last five years, including 27 miners who died in underground accidents in West Virginia. Despite the dangerous conditions, economic desperation continues to drive workers into the occupation.

Samantha Lewis, whose 28-year-old husband, David, is among those trapped, said he worked the mines so he could be home every night to take care of their three daughters while she worked on a master’s degree in health-care administration. “This was a good way to make a living until we could find something else,” Lewis said. “It’s just a way of life. Unless you’re a coal miner or you have a college degree, you don’t make any money.”

More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/sago-j04.shtml

In the hours after it became clear that 12 of the 13 coal miners trapped in a West Virginia mine had perished, family, friends and co-workers expressed outrage over the earlier reports by company officials and state authorities that all but one of the men had been saved.

The sense that they had been cruelly deceived only compounded the grief and anger of those who lost loved ones in a facility known by miners and their families to be dangerously out of compliance with safety regulations.

Company officials, Governor Joe Manchin and the news media scrambled on Wednesday to explain why false claims of a “miracle” rescue at the Sago Mine had been made public without any confirmation late Tuesday night, and why relatives were then kept in the dark for hours after company and state officials had learned that all but one of the trapped miners were dead.

Even after the body of one of the trapped miners was recovered Tuesday evening, the mining community held out hope that the remaining twelve would somehow be brought safely back to the surface. There was overwhelming joy when the initial report came that the men had, in fact, been found still alive by a rescue team. One survivor, 27-year-old Randal McCloy, was brought out of the mine and whisked away by ambulance to a hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

But the exultation turned to horror, shock and pain when, hours later, the expectant family members and friends were told the shattering truth.

In the aftermath, in one of the rare occasions when the real sentiments of working class people are acknowledged, the media took note of the widespread anger in the mining community over the treacherous conditions miners endure and the general indifference they confront from the coal companies and the politicians who pander to the mine owners’ interests.

The latest chapter in the Sago Mine tragedy began just before midnight Tuesday, when company officials and the federal and state authorities overseeing the rescue operation reportedly received a message from the rescuers deep within the mine that 12 miners, apparently alive, had been found.

More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/sago-j05.shtml

Dark and deadly. That's the life of a coal miner. The recent deaths of eleven miners in Tallmansville, West Virginia confirms this fact once again. Even in the best of mines where the fresh air is pumped in at a better than is required by law minimum and where the gases associated with the work are quickly pumped to the surface, it is a deadly job. Back in 1974 and 1975 I spent a little time with a DC area leftist group trying to organize among the miners in West Virginia who were than engaged in a series of wildcat strikes against various mine operators attempting to push the miners even harder than normal. Not only were the strikes against this company, they were also against the wishes of the national office of the United Mine Workers (UMW). The UMW had undergone a transformation earlier in the decade, finally getting rid of the corrupt labor boss Tony Boyle and electing a slate of reformists whose primary directives were to insists that all future contracts would include:

1) the local right to strike,

2) the separation of income from productivity,

3) miner-enforced safety regulations, and

4) district autonomy.

By the time of the 1974 contract however, the national seemed to have forgotten these. The aforementioned wildcats were in response to the national's attempts to "modernize" relations between the union and the mine operators. What this meant in practical terms was that miners would lose their right to strike over local issues--an important right given the varying levels of safety and other labor practices at different mines; instead of keeping the right of a group of miners to walk off the job until the situation was fixed if they felt a mine shaft was unsafe the new contract would require the miners to continue working while the safety issues were being arbitrated. Indeed, one local was fined $30,000 dollars for striking over a safety issue at a mine in southern West Virginia. Furthermore, the rights of the workers' Health and Safety Committees were curtailed. In fact, they could no longer make unannounced inspections of mines, having to arrange a visit with management instead. this, of course, allowed management to clean up its act before the union local inspectors arrived. The power of management to fire sick workers was expanded. This led to an increase in unreported illnesses and injuries, which in turn increased the danger levels for the other miners. Salary structures were tiered according to seniority. This practice, which is more or less standard in most industry contracts today where unions still exist essentially pits older workers against younger ones and, in the process, can prevent them from unifying against management when such unity is needed. These were but a few of the problems the more militant miners had with the contract negotiated by the national office. To add insult to injury, it was the militant miners operating under the name Miners for Democracy that had elected these officers. Now, those same officers were telling them that this new contract was the best ever in the history of the UMW. By the middle of 1975, more than 80,000 miners had participated in wildcats to show their disagreement with that appraisal.

More
http://counterpunch.org/jacobs01042006.html