http://www.theblaze.com/stories/rig...a-businessman-tell-the-feds-im-just-quitting/
“Nearly every day without fail…men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just…you know…what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I see these guys—I see them with tears in their eyes—looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So…basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting
. Thank you.”
Cry me a river.
(Excerpt) When asked about typical concerns surrounding coal mining—including companies skirting health and safety regulations—Douglas said it “doesn’t make sense” to let safety lapse and risk losing miners to illness or injury when it would only cost more to train new personnel.
“We take care of our equipment and take care of our people,” Douglas said. “The regulations make coal miners out to be criminals; but we’re not outlaws. (End)
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/rig...a-businessman-tell-the-feds-im-just-quitting/
Sept/ 2002 (Excerpt) James Sturgill, 35, didn't make it through his first shift in Samons' J&A Coal Corp. No. 1 Mine. On that March day in 1999, Sturgill and three other miners were ordered to clear debris from a 7-foot-high "boom hole" that had been blasted from the pinched tunnel to make space for power stations and machinery……..
Sturgill crawled about 3 feet past Crisp into the unsupported basin to hold the drill while Crisp operated the controls.
Hughes never heard the roof crack. One of the miners heard Sturgill yell--"Get it off me!"--as the dun-gray stone collapsed on him. Hughes was knocked unconscious. Injured by the rock fall, Crisp and Byron Martin labored to lift the 7-foot slab of shale from Sturgill.
He gasped for air and then was still….
After federal inspectors investigated Sturgill's death, they issued citations saying Samons and his deputies were directing miners to work under unsupported rock and not providing safe levels of fresh air.
MSHA fined Samons $220,000 for "serious and substantial" safety violations that contributed to Sturgill's death, but that money may never be paid.
"I'll just have to declare bankruptcy," Samons said.
For Samons and other operators who accrue safety penalties, bankruptcy is an acceptable way to avoid paying fines….
.It's just easier to go ahead and form a new corporation," Samons said. (End)
http://www.usmra.com/mine5_3.htm
January 4, 2006 (Excerpt) Time and again over the past four years, federal mining inspectors documented the same litany of problems at central West Virginia's Sago Mine: mine roofs that tended to collapse without warning. Faulty or inadequate tunnel supports. A dangerous buildup of flammable coal dust.
Yesterday, the mine's safety record came into sharp focus as officials searched for explanations to Monday's underground explosion. That record, as reflected in dozens of federal inspection reports, shows a succession of operators struggling to overcome serious, long-standing safety problems, some of which could be part of the investigation into the cause of the explosion that trapped 13 miners.
In the past two years, the mine was cited 273 times for safety violations, (End)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010301433.html
April 7, 2010 (Excerpt) Massey Energy’s Disregard for Safety
A massive explosion ripped through the Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia on Monday, killing 25 miners and leaving 6 others missing and presumed dead. The mine had an egregious record of health and safety violations. Peter Rothberg of The Nationwrites: The US Mine Safety and Health Administration cited the mine for 1,342 safety violations from 2005
http://www.care2.com/causes/more-th...iolations-for-wv-coal-mine.html#ixzz1TFtKEcvk
And people ask why there are regulations? One mine racked up one thousand three hundred and forty-two (1,342) safety violations in 5 years. Another managed to obtain 273 violations in two years.
But, hey, no problem. If a few people die and the fines are too large just declare bankruptcy and form a new corporation and life goes on. Well, life goes on for the owner of the mine, not for those who were buried. And what becomes of the miner’s families left behind? Who puts food on their table? The corporation folds, starts up under a new name and the families get nothing. Maybe the Repubs would like to cut a bit off the family’s welfare check. After all, there is one less mouth to feed as Papa has gone to meet his maker.
Life must be a bitch for folks like Ronnie Bryant. That damn government sticking their nose in his business just because a few employees may die here and there or a few families may lose a husband and father.
As they say necessity is the mother of invention. Maybe those children who lost their father and grow up hungry will acquire a good work ethic. Nothing like a little suffering to motivate folks.
I’m sure the less-government,-cut-social-programs Republicans know what’s best.
