Report on fatal mine explosion should spark anger
The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s report on Massey Energy’s Big Branch, West Virginia facility where 29 miners were killed in an explosion last year should raise eyebrows and stimulate outrage in any civilized human being.
We are told that Massey managers pressured workers not to report hazardous conditions and that the facility kept two sets of records, one which indicated actual mine conditions, and the other which avoided disclosure of anything which could be harmful to the company’s ability to operate unimpeded by safety concerns.
The dangerous nature of mine work has long been known, and it returns to the public consciousness on every one of the many occasions that disasters occur in which workers are killed while pursuing a good living that enables them to support their families.
When a devastating mine accident occurs, operators pay lip service to their concern for the miners and their families, and they generally offer rich settlements to families of survivors. The reality, though, is that the men are seen by the companies as expendable, solely as the means to enable the industry to garner hefty profits. If some perish at work, the fallout is a price that the companies are willing to pay as a cost of doing business: sickening.
I consider anyone who was involved in sweeping under the rug mine conditions which place workers in unnecessary danger to be an accessory to murder.
Massey Energy management, past and present, must be thoroughly investigated, and those who are found to have engaged in criminal wrongdoing convicted of criminal charges and placed behind bars for a long period of time.
If culpable executives and managers are sent to jail, a powerful message would be delivered that miners are human beings who deserve every reasonable protection we can give them as they pursue the work that few of us have the ability, willingness, or courage to perform.
Oren M. Spiegler is a resident of Upper St. Clair, a suburb of Pittsburgh.