Don Blankenship’s record of profits over safety: “Coal pays the bills”

It isn't just Massey that isn't going to fix the problems. I drove through coal country this week, and the poverty is astounding, but what is equally astounding is the way this poverty and dependence on coal has been orchestrated.

There is NO GOOD REASON why more industry and increased educational opportunities have not been brought into West Virginia. State revenue has been available to build the kind of highway and railroad infrastructure necessary to get the coal out, but West Virginia politicians have been in bed with the coal companies for generations and generations, and their own politicians ensure a cheap and dependent labor pool for big coal companies by refusing to recruit either industry or education programs to change the lives of the people who mine the coal.

Make no mistake, West Virgina politicians have ensured that the labor pool remains impoverished and dependent on coal. They are making the deals that keep labor costs down for coal companies, and at the same time, they wheel and deal to keep safety down, profits up and risk unconscionable for the health and well being of the miners. It is a travesty and amounts to little more than indentured slavery, not unlike the way big business has operated around the world in tea, coffee, rice, soy and other agricultural industries to ensure a cheap source of labor. West Virginia is an island of poverty in the midst of the wealthiest nation in the world...this is NOT a mistake, and it is NOT because they are isolated by mountains. The state has the money to build infrastructure to get the coal out of the ground and out of the state, but they are unwilling to do what it would really take to improve the lives of the coal miners because West Virginia's own politicians are contracted to ensure cheap labor and high profits for monsters like Don Blankenship.

This kind of wheeling and dealing takes place on the grounds of the Augusta golf course, not just in the hallowed halls of Congress.

This has been going on for 150 years.

Mine owners and corporate interests purporting to bring employment and prosperity to Appalachia.

And they have.

For themselves.

Then, when the timber or coal has run out......................

so do they.

And the people who live there, coach little league, and teach sunday schools are left behind.

With nothing.

THEN ask the mine owners and corporate lawyers how much they care about the people who live there and work for them for low pay in unsafe conditions.

"Coal pays the bills"--------who pays the bills when the coal is mined out and all burned up to make electricity?

Wind makes electricity. Who will pay the bills when the wind is all used up?

From today's ( April 9, 2010) New York Times article on the Massey mine disaster:

"The mine, operated by the Massey Energy Company, was warned that it had a “potential pattern of violations” in a Dec. 6, 2007, letter from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The letter noted that the mine had received 204 violations that were deemed serious and significant over the previous two years, well above average."

"But six months later, the safety agency announced that the Upper Big Branch mine, located in Montcoal, W.Va., and 19 others that were warned that December, had all instituted plans to fix their problems, and had received fewer violations. They all escaped the added oversight, which would have allowed the federal government to close down the mines every time they found a significant violation."

"After the violations went down, they more than doubled the following year. Newly released federal inspection records show that the mine had recently been given warnings for accumulation of flammable coal dust and ventilation problems."

"Since the start of 2009, the records show, the mine had at least 50 notices of problems that Massey knew existed but failed to correct. At least four of those concerned violations of a rule that requires the mine operator to follow an approved ventilation plan. Massey officials declined comment on the records."

How is it that Federal mine safety inspectors (or more accurately, their supervisors,) allowed these violations to continue because the mines "..instituted plans" to fix the problems---especially when those "plans" were followed by repeated "violations and warnings"?

It's long past time to hold Massey and company and the pliant or corrupt federal officials responsible for these continuing disasters, accountable.

If the miners and the families of miners in West Virginia were to take direct action against Massey and the individuals who allowed these senseless deaths to occur, I'd say more power to them.

If the Unions were strong , they could have shut it down , till it was safe .

Anyone besides me note the irony of the fact that West Virginia's other senator is a Rockefeller? Senator Rockefeller is the Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care and a passionate advocate and supporter of health care reform. The irony of Rockefeller's health care reform slogan, "Protecting the Middle Class" is just nauseating. West Virginia is a state whose population has been INTENTIONALLY kept below the poverty line and dependent on coal. Rockefeller has been instrumental in accomplishing that, his entire career. It makes little difference that he is a Democrat. Poverty and dependence on the coal industry didn't just happen to West Virginians, decades of exploitation by their politicians and the coal industry has been carefully and consistently arranged year after year, life after life, death after death.

nice post...

"Profit over people". Sounds like the mantra for the Republican party. This fat bastard should be thrown in a hole and covered up with dirt and smothered. Now how is that "profit over people" working for you.

The ugly face (and price) of greed. Jail is to good for people like this. If they believe that profits trump life than it should be their life on the line...

It seems like the man is just plain cold-blooded. I can only hope this further cements opposition to the industry in that region. Are there any lawsuits pending against this company right now? Have any families or organizations brought lawsuits due to this recent accident? Please send any more info you come across my way!

Also bribery of a state legal official. In the form of campaighn contributions. This is the pitfall that the suprem court has opened with their decision that corperations can make unlimited campaighn contributions.

This man should have charges of negliant homicide brought against him. Putting profit over lives is allways wrong, I don't care how many degrees you have. a life is allways more important than profit. I wonder how many corperations are like this company. Yes mining is dangorous but so are many other occupations.

What a despicable excuse for a human being. "Profit over people" is such a destructive force in a civil society.