Mining
sb admin | July 4, 2008The United Steelworkers, North America's largest private sector union with 1.2 million members, and Unite the Union, the largest labor organization in the United Kingdom and Ireland with 2 million members, signed an agreement to create the world's first global union called Workers Uniting. The announcement was made at the USW's 2008 Constitutional Convention.
In a video news release featuring USW Int'l President Leo W. Gerard and Unite the Union's General Secretary Derek Simpson, the two trade unionists describe the power of the two institutions coming together with a shared "vision of a…
sb admin | June 27, 2008Earlier this month, William Scott Hill, 33, of Staffordsville, KY was killed while cutting trees to prepare for a surface coal mine for the Premier Elkhorn Coal Company (TECO Energy). Mr. Hill was employed by Gopher Contracting of Jackson, KY. His death on June 3 reminded me of other fatalities involving tree cutters working at mining operations, including Lawrence Payne, 32, who was killed in March 2004 and William S. Woods, 44, who was killed in December 2004.** Â
Just as I was reading about Mr. Hill's death, OSHA sent an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on June 19 to OMB…
sb admin | June 18, 2008Mr. Robert Carey, 45, an athracite coal miner from Shamokin, Pennsylvania was killed on Monday by falling rock/coal at the Harmony Mine. So far this year, 26 workers at U.S. mining operations have died on-the-job. Just this past Sunday, former MSHA chief J. Davitt McAteer had an Op-Ed in the Charleston Gazette entitled: "Enough: No More Mining Deaths."   He wrote:
"It is time to stop killing our children, husbands, brothers and sons in the name of mining."
The 26 deceased men were working at mining operations in the following states: Alabama (2), California (2), Indiana, Iowa,…
sb admin | June 3, 2008The 65 or so high school seniors of Tygarts Valley High School shared a moment of silence during their graduation ceremony last night (The InterMountain reports) to mourn the death of Adam Lanham, 18, who died on Friday, May 30 at ICG's Sentinel Mine. The young coal miner was a 2007 graduate of Tygarts Valley High School, and reportedly was pinched between the mine rib and a coal scoop. News reports (here) state that the "red hat" (apprentice) miners' father and two brothers also worked at the Sentinel Mine.Â
ICG's website makes no mention of the young man's death. The company says:
"…
sb admin | May 28, 2008How do you best teach workers about safety? How do you change peopleâs attitudes?Â
The Workersâ Comp board in Ontario, Cananda, and many safety instructors along with them, believes that gruesome pictures or videos work best. Like driving by the scene of a car accident, it is hard not to look. Perhaps by showing a horrific accident, workers will be more careful or take more precautions. The Ontario Worker Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) produced a series of five short (30 second) videos for different industries each showing an âaccidentâ which occurs and then saying how this could…
sb admin | May 27, 2008Earlier this year, a group of worker advocates sent a petition to MSHA Chief Richard Stickler asking for rulemaking to improve the training miners receive about their statutory rights. The petition called for significant changes in the way in which all workers employed at U.S. mining operations learn about their rights, including the right to refuse unsafe work and to express concerns about hazards. (Previous post here) The petitioners asked MSHA to consider changing how miners' rights training is conducted, specifically having someone other than the miner operator or his…
sb admin | May 22, 2008For the third time in eight months, workers from the Getchell gold mine* near Winnemuca, NV have seen a co-worker killed on-the-job. First was Mr. Curtis L. Johnson, 36, a roof-bolter, who was killed on August 28, 2007, when part of the mine collapsed on him.  Next was Mike Millican, 43, who was killed on January 26, 2008 when a haulage truck backed over him. Then, Kenny Barbosa, 28, was killed on April 21, in another fall of ground. Thanks to the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Alan Maimon** for drawing my attention to these workers' deaths.  Sadly, and as usual, all of them were…
sb admin | May 19, 2008A fair number of people have "Ah-ha!" moments, but how many actually take those nuggets of brilliance and pursue them?Â
One man --an inventor of sorts who I came to know because of the Sago disaster---has done just that. While watching the rescue efforts at the WV Sago mine unfold on television in early January 2006, this man used his knowledge as a former Navy submariner to design and develop a tracking system for underground miners. His "Ah-ha!" moment and now application was recognized this month by Popular Science magazine as one of the top-ten inventions for 2008! (PopSci…
sb admin | April 29, 2008Just as the 60-day deadline approached for filing a legal challenge to a new health standard to protect mine workers from asbestos exposure, mining industry trade associations submitted their petitions in federal court. MSHA's rule was published on February 29, and tick-tock, like clockwork, the National Mining Assoc, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Assoc (NSSGA) and others filed suits in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting judicial review of MSHA's rule. Under both the OSHA and MSHA statutues, "any person who may be adversely affect by a [newly promulgated]…
sb admin | April 21, 2008For more than two years, the Cook family has waited for answers about the coal-truck crash that took the life of Chad Cook, their son and brother. Their long ordeal began immediately after 25-year old Chad's death, when an MSHA inspector decided that the fatal crash occurred on a public road and therefore would not be investigated. The State followed MSHA's lead, and Chad's death was chalked up as a motor-vehicle accident, not deserving of workplace safety agencies' resources.  Too bad none of them told the Cook family. Â
About a year later and as a last resort, Mrs. Gay Cook…
sb admin | April 21, 2008The front page of yesterdayâs Washington Post provided a stark reminder of the cost of powering the DC region: a scarred and denuded landscape once graced by mountains and wildlife. Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) in West Virginia feeds coal-powered plants that have been demanding more and more of the fuel; in the DC area, demand for electricity grew 18% since 2001. The Postâs David A. Fahrenthold explains the process and its effects:
Starting in earnest in the 1980s, mining companies began extracting the region's coal by removing the mountains on top of it. At these sites, the top 100 feet…
sb admin | April 18, 2008Pork plant in illness probe wins worker safety award
Safety award to Massey mine where two miners were killed Â
First, I thought these were bad April Fools' jokes or maybe an article from the ONION.  But no, these headlines are no joke. A pork packing house in Austin, MN, a worksite where at least 12 workers have developed an autoimmune disorder, is receiving the Award of Honor from the American Meat Institute for its worker safety and health program. (This is the plant with the "blowing brains" table," where workers used compressed air on pig skulls to harvest the…
sb admin | April 14, 2008One of the nation's top advocates for miners' health and safety, Tony Oppegard, sent a scathing letter last week to the Deputy Solicitor of Labor (SOL), Ronald G. Whiting, mincing no words about their pitiful performance. Oppegard's letter concerned a particular case involving a worker who was fired for complaining about safety, but its content speaks volumes about SOL's "consistent and undistinguished record" of turning its back on workers who exercise their statutory rights. As Oppegard foretells:
"If SOL is going to continue to insist that a discrimination case be a clear-cut…
sb admin | April 11, 2008The first story about the death of Mr. Ricky "Mud Puddle" Collins came on Thursday afternoon (3/27) in an AP story Massey Miner Killed in Logan County. The short news clip mentioned a miner employed at Massey Energy's Freeze Fork Surface Mine in Logan County, who we later learned was Mr. Collins, 43, of Dan's Branch, WV. The article said he:
"died while working on a trailer at a railroad crossing near Stollings in Logan County Thursday,"Â but
"MSHA is not investigating the accident because it did not occur on mine property."
An article the next day said the trailer "saddle-bagged" over the…
sb admin | April 1, 2008The Department of Labor's Inspector General (IG) issued a report yesterday about the Utah Crandall Canyon mine, saying:
"MSHA was negligent in carrying out its responsibilities to protect the safety of miners."
The investigation was carried out in response to a request from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and documented in an 80-page report entitled: "MSHA Could Not Show it Made the Right Decision in Approving the Roof Control Plan at Crandall Canyon Mine."Â Â The August 2007 underground mine disaster killed nine men, including Mr. Gary Jensen a federal…
sb admin | March 28, 2008In response to a recommendation from the Department of Labor's Inspector General, MSHA released data on 40 additional deaths which occurred (mostly) in 2007 at U.S. mining operations but were deemed not "chargeable" to the mining industry. The information, which includes 5 deaths in late 2006 and 35 in 2007, involved miners, contract workers, a mine owner, children of mine operators, and trespassers onto mine property. Of the 40 deaths, 30 were classified as "natural causes," based on autopsy reports with notations such as "acute cardiac dysrhthmia," "acute myocardial infarction," "…
sb admin | March 21, 2008A coal miner from eastern Kentucky filed a law suit yesterday requesting a federal court judge to compel MSHA to issue a health standard to prevent miners from developing black lung disease. The Petition for Writ of Mandamus (Howard v. Chao) argues that Congress intended, through the Federal Coal Mine Health & Safety Act of 1969 (amended 1977), MSHA to promulgate regulations to prevent new cases of coal workers pnuemoconiosis, progressive massive fibrosis and other illnesses related to miners' exposure to respirable coal mine dust. Despite evidence over the last 12 years that…
sb admin | March 11, 2008A group of state legislators in West Virginia introduced a bill earlier this year to strengthen the Stateâs laws to protect mine workers who raise concerns about unsafe working conditions. The lead sponsors were Delegate Bill Hamilton (R) who represents the region where the now-abandoned Sago mine and State Senators Jon Blair Hunter (D) and Randy White (D). (I wrote earlier about their effort here.) Several weeks have now passed, and are any of us surprised to learn that the bill was killed in the WV legislative committee? Â
Nathan Fetty of Mine Safety Project of the…
sb admin | March 3, 2008The State of Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services recently released a report on work-related lead poisoning over the last 12 years (1995-2006). I was shocked to read that 94 percent of the workers (289 men) with blood-lead levels above 25 ug/dL were employed in the mining industry. A follow-up story by Elizabeth Bluemink of the Anchorage Daily News reports that most of the adult blood-lead laboratory results came from the Red Dog lead-zinc mine near Kotzebue, Alaska. Although there is no MSHA standard to protect miners from lead poisoning, Teck Cominco Alaska Inc. has some…
sb admin | February 29, 2008For the first time, beginning on April 29, it will be unlawful for employers in the mining industry to expose workers to asbestos concentrations higher than 0.1 fiber (per cubic meter of air) over an 8-hour shift. MSHA published today a new exposure limit for asbestos to replace a 2.0 fiber limit which has been on the books since 1978 when the agency was created. Other U.S. workers, in contrast, began getting protection from an OSHA asbestos standard in 1971 and it was revised several times over years---from 2 fibers, to 0.5, to 0.2 and 0.1----to make it more protective of …