Feb. 1—Just weeks after 15 West Virginia and Kentucky coal miners were killed in three separate underground disasters, President George W. Bush’s nominee to run the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says today’s mine safety laws are adequate.
In a confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Jan. 31, former coal company executive Richard Stickler declined to endorse new mine safety rules, such as those passed by the West Virginia legislature in January.
The state’s new rules—passed in response to the fatal accidents—require all miners to be equipped with tracking devices to give rescuers a better chance of finding missing miners in a disaster and mandate the development of a rapid response mine rescue system. In addition, supplies of oxygen must be placed throughout the mine to supplement the one-hour supply miners now carry. The miners in the Sago disaster, which killed 12 miners after a Jan. 3 mine explosion, were underground for 41 hours.
Similar federal regulations were under development by MSHA but were killed after the Bush administration took office in 2001, union safety and health experts say.
On Feb. 1, federal mine safety legislation that mirrors the recently passed West Virginia law was introduced by West Virginia Sens. Robert Byrd (D), Jay Rockefeller (D) and Reps. Nick Rahall (D), Alan Mollohan (D) and Shelley Moore Capito (R).
Stickler’s Name ‘Should Be Withdrawn’
Citing Stickler’s close connections with the coal industry—he was a mining company executive at a subsidiary of Massey Energy in West Virginia, one the nation’s biggest coal companies—Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts says Stickler’s nomination should be withdrawn. (The Massey Aracoma Coal’s Alma Mine was the site of a Jan. 19 mine fire that killed two mine workers). If confirmed, Stickler would replace another Bush-appointed mining company executive who previously ran the agency.
In a Jan. 24 letter to Bush, Roberts writes, “For too many years, miners have endured an agency directed by coal mine executives. Too often, these mining executives place a priority on productivity, but fail to focus on miners’ health and safety.”
Bush has appointed former senior executives from Peabody Energy, AMAX Inc., the American Mining Congress, Cyprus Minerals Co. and other such companies to high-ranking posts within MSHA.
MSHA ‘Stacked’ with Corporate Mine Officials
A Jan. 31 report from the House Education and Workforce Committee Democratic staff backs up Roberts’ concern about the adverse impact Bush’s appointees from the coal industry have had on mine safety.
“The Bush administration has stacked MSHA and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission with mining industry insiders,” the reports says.
In the top 10 management positions at the safety agencies, the report lists eight former coal industry or coal industry association executives. The only top-level administrator in either agency with a connection to workers is a Mine Safety and Health Review commissioner who served as a UMWA attorney. She was appointed by the Clinton administration. The 10th post is vacant.
The House report shows that not only are the number of major fines (more than $10,000) down by 10 percent since the Bush administration took over MSHA, but the median amount of those fines has dropped from $47,913 under the last four years of the Clinton administration to $27,139 under Bush. That represents a 43 percent reduction in the penalties. The maximum fine available to MSHA is $60,000.
Judge Rules Mine Workers Union Can Take Part in Sago Investigation
Also on Jan. 31, a federal appeals court rejected International Coal Group’s (ICG’s) appeal of a lower court’s decision that allows UMWA safety experts to take part in the investigation of the explosion at the nonunion Sago Mine in Upshur County, W.Va.
On Jan. 25, ICG banned union safety representatives from entering the nonunion mine with federal and state inspectors—even though several miners and their families had asked for UMWA representation in the investigation and MSHA had certified the union’s participation.
Federal mine safety laws permit the union to represent miners at any mine on safety issues at the request of two or more miners. On Jan. 26, a federal judge ruled ICG could not ban the union inspectors and the company appealed.
More
§ Download the House Education and Workforce Committee report on the Bush administration’s mine safety record.
§ Check out “EXCLUSIVE: Bush Ignored Explicit Warnings in 2002 About Mine Safety,” at Working for Change.
§ See the “Today” show interview with John Bennett whose father was killed in the Sago blast (click “Governor, victim’s son discuss accident” link in video box on right side).
§ See the AFL-CIO’s report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.
§ Find out more about Bush administration actions at the AFL-CIO BushWatch.
§ Learn more about how employers retaliate against workers seeking to form unions.
