(CNN) -- Federal reports show the number of safety violations at the Sago Mine rose rapidly over the past two years, and in 2005 inspectors called 96 of them "serious and substantial."
WJACTV--The Sago Mine in West Virginia was sited for 46 alleged violations by federal inspectors during the holidays. Among those were violations for safeguarding against roof falls and the mine's plan to control methane. According to federal officials, the safety problems at the mine escalated over the past few years.
GOI: Back to CNN:
Add reports of 11 roof collapses in the past six months, and a former top federal official for mine safety says any mine operator should see a red flag.
"That's a signal to you that says, 'You better do something at this workplace, before something bad happens,' " Davitt McAteer said
Davitt McAteer says it is too early to know who, if anyone, should bear responsibility in this accident. But he has a word of caution about the booming coal trade in general, and any company that might seek too much gold too fast from the black rock.
"We've seen historically, the mine companies that operate on the margins and try to push all the costs down and the (profit) margins up in the short run tend to have tremendous safety problems."
GOI: And this is why deregulation is bad. Deregulation often creates work environments that are dangerous or otherwise unacceptable as there is not much independent, federal over-sight.
From Reuters:
The United Mine Workers of America said the Sago miners were not union members.
GOI: And this accident shows why unions are so important to worker safety and productivity.
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2 comments:
From what I heard on the PBS NewsHour, the miners made a lot of money, up to 80K/yr, including overtime. So I wonder about the necessity/value of a union.
Safety should be a gov't concern. What bugs me is that companies can treat these citations as petty nuisances. These aren't even to the level of fix-it tickets; they're speeding tickets that companies can pay and then immediately go back to speeding.
We'll see if the cause of the disaster is a safety issue, but, yeah, eleven roof collapses makes me wonder if there should be teeth to these citations and the gov't should shut down mines in such substantial violation of safety.
One problem: Globalization. The current owner bought the mine a year ago when in was in bankruptcy. How do we stay competative in a global market?
Tom: Well, on unions It shouldn't matter how much a person makes.
They still deserve the safest work areas possible and unions do a pretty good job of getting that done. Sure there are abuses by the unions as well but personally I'd rather work in a union shop/mine, etc. then in a non-union one.
I agree with you that these citations need to be enforced stronger. They should be shutting down mines with as many citations as the Sago received.
I also agree that globalization is a big part of the problem. Good point.
America seems to keep loosing to the rest of the world anymore but hey, I guess we can still make bombs, eh?! ;)
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