Labor & Employment Law

Obama to Eulogize Miners; Trumka Cites Massey?s ?Failure? to Follow Law; Ugly Words from ALEC

By Mike Hall

President Obama will travel to Beckley, W.Va., Sunday, April 25, to attend a special memorial service for the 29 coal miners killed in the April 5 explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama–who will be accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden–will deliver a eulogy “honoring the lives of those who perished and offering his deepest condolences to the loved ones they left behind.”

Meanwhile, labor radio journalist Rick Smith interviewed AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and asked him if the Upper Big Branch disaster was the result of a “failure regulation” or of “government failing to keep mines safe.” Trumka said we should look elsewhere.

In this specific instance, knowing this operator, Don Blankenship from Massey Energy, it is a failure to comply with the law. A lot of people join in that failure. You have federal inspectors who are trying to do a good job, but they’ve been hampered for the past eight years by the Bush administration. They had a program where they thought they would cooperate for enforcement as opposed to enforcing the law. So the law went unenforced.

Trumka also noted that mines with good safety and health records are the most productive, especially over the life time of mine. But when a mine is unsafe,

when they start cutting corners, when they leave large accumulations of lose coal and coal dust, when they don’t take care of ventilation, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Trumka, the former president of the Mine Workers (UMWA), also told Smith one of the advantages of union representation in the mine is the contractual ability to shut down a mine or portion mine for unsafe working conditions. But Upper Big Branch was a non-union mine where

the workers were intimidated–and whenever you’re dealing with a bad economic environment like you are, the intimidation is easier to impose on workers. Don Blankenship is a master at intimidating people…I think if everybody had the right to collective bargaining, all worksites would be a lot safer and a lot healthy for our workers.

Click here for more of the interview.

Also last week, Marlene Griffith, whose husband, William Griffith, died in the explosion,  filed a wrongful-death suit against Massey Energy, saying the mine’s history of safety violations amounted to negligence.

That didn’t sit well with Nathan Coffey, Public Affairs Coordinator for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative front group that pushes corporate friendly legislation at the state level. He sent out a tweet that reflects how at least some people near the top of the corporate food chain think. (Thanks to the folks at Think Progress for passing this along.) Here’s Coffey:

Everyone wants free money! Widow of miner killed in explosion in WV sues owner Massey Energy for negligence.

Coffey, later apologized for his comments saying he admitted “I was wrong. It was distasteful & a baseless sarcastic comment.”

He’ll get no argument here. But saying he’s sorry doesn’t earn him a free pass either.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).