March - April - United Mine Workers of America

Are miners sAfer?WhenPresidentBarackObama appointedHilda Solis to be theSecretary of Laborin the weeks after hisinauguration, Americanworkers could have confidencethat for the first time in eight years,they had someone in the lead atthe Labor Department who was ontheir side. She grew up in a unionhousehold with both of her parentspaying union dues.A look at thestate ofmine safetyand healthin 2011PhIl SMIThThen came the nomination inJuly 2009 of Joe Main to be AssistantSecretary of labor for Mine Safetyand health. A long-time UMWAhealth and safety leader who headedthe union’s Department of Occupationalhealth and Safety for over threedecades, Main brought unprecedentedknowledge of mining health and safetyissues from a miners’ perspective.“Joe is perhaps the most knowledgeableperson about mine safetyand health in the nation,” PresidentRoberts said at the time of Main’snomination. “his experience wasgained where it counts the most—fighting every day for over 30years on behalf of miners’ healthand safety.”It’s been just over two years sinceSolis took office and 17 months sinceMain was confirmed in his position inOctober 2009. It’s an appropriate timeto ask: Are miners safer than theywere on Jan. 19, 2009, the day beforethe Obama administration began?2010 A deAdly yeArOne measure of the effectiveness ofthe enforcement of mine safety andhealth laws by the Mine Safety andhealth Administration (MShA) isthe fatality statistics. “These are theone set of numbers the coal operatorscan’t hide,” President Roberts said.“They can’t figure out ways to getaround these numbers like they try todo with lost-time injury statistics.”In 2009, 18 people were killed atU.S. mines. It was the lowest numberof annual fatalities on record. One ofthose was a UMWA member workingat the Jim Walters #7 mine in Alabama.2010, however, was a completelydifferent story. There were 48 fatalitieslast year, the most in any year since1992. One of those miners was aUMWA member working at theloveridge mine in West Virginia. 2010also saw the worst mining disaster in40 years when 29 miners were killedat the Upper Big Branch mine inMontcoal, W.Va.“Any time miners are dying,something is wrong,” Roberts said. “AtUpper Big Branch, it’s very clear thatthe operator wasn’t doing its job tokeep miners safe on many differentlevels. What’s not so clear yet is howthis mine got to the point where adisaster of this magnitude could occur.”Along with MShA and the stateof West Virginia, the UMWA isparticipating in the investigation atUpper Big Branch and will be writingits own, independent report about thedisaster. “We will take a hard look atwho was responsible for what at thatmine and let the chips fall where theymay,” Secretary-Treasurer Kane said.Despite calls from the UMWA andthe media to open up the process anddo a public investigation of the UpperBig Branch tragedy, the agency has keptit closed, citing a criminal investigationthat is being conducted by the JusticeDepartment into the disaster.It’s worth noting that thegovernment’s investigation into the10 March/April 2011 • United Mine Workers Journal