US coal miners denounce deadly conditions

More than 2,000 people from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio and Alabama attended the memorial service at the West Virginia Wesleyan College chapel in Buckhannon, West Virginia, just a few miles from the Sago mine where 12 miners were trapped and killed after a January 2 explosion. (See “Memorial service for Sago miners preaches reconciliation”) Randal McCloy Jr., 26, the only survivor, remains in a coma at West Virginia University’s Ruby Memorial Hospital.

Coal miners and friends attending the memorial service spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the lack of safety at the mine and cuts in funding that delayed the rescue efforts, which may have cost the men their lives.

“I couldn’t believe they allowed that mine to open back up,” said Randy Collins, a friend of fallen miner Fred Ware, who works for a trucking company that picked up coal at Sago. “They shut that mine in 2004 because it was unsafe and they open it back up without fixing the problems in it. The government should never have allowed that mine to reopen.\

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/ints-j17.shtml