Friday, October 22, 2010
WEIRD STUFF:
ONE TENTH OF A MIND:
Molly has had her hands slapped before and done her proper mea culpas about her opinions about the state of the American mind. Now it is no doubt true that the majority of the American population is indeed part of the modern world with all that that implies. Still, I have yet to see anybody present any proof that the USA does not contain the majority of religious sects (yes I include every stump worshipping local cult in the far reaches of the Amazon in this estimate) existent in the world today.
In a field that I am much more familiar with I doubt that anyone could present proof that the USA doesn't contain the majority of the weird political sects that infest the modern world. In term of leftist bullshit it would be hard to find another country which could produce the Weathermen, one of whose "political" tenets was that one should sleep on the floor because "mattresses were white skin privilege". Similarly, and speaking of stump worshippers, it should be noted that the USA is the necrotic centre of the religious revival masquerading as politics known as "primitivism". For those unfamiliar with this cuteness it is a current of thought claiming the "anarchist" label (or claiming to be far superior to it) that says that "civilization" should be abolished and that this is actually some sort of realistic 'program". I'll leave the naive reader to their own devises in imagining what this means because it essentially means nothing except intestinal gas disguised as speech.
But then there is the other side which far outweighs leftist bullshit by several orders of magnitude. Outside of the Middle East and parts of Central Asia the USA is probably the only area of the world where obviously insane nonsense can easily become part of everyday "accepted" politics. Most of this nonsense could be styled "right wing bullshit" rather than the left wing variety of bovine feces. The examples are endless, but I've chosen to present one below. This is the political movement known as the "Tenthers".
Out here in the civilized world this probably has about as much resonance as a dispute about how many Imams there there have been in the Muslim world. Yet, it seems to mean a lot in the country where "Birthers" has a meaning. Believers in this way of politics think that the last 70 years of US politics are illegitimate because the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution says that "any powers not expressly designated to the federal government are the province of the states or the people". Sounds pretty "libertarian" ? Wrong ! The targets of those who believe in this legal fiction are pretty well exclusively those "powers" whereby a less prosperous segment of the population guards against the exploitation of the more prosperous people. NOTHING is said about the rights of communities (as opposed to states), and NOTHING is said about the legal protection (and how it shouldn't exist) for those who are higher in the class system as opposed to the efforts of those below them. Some "individuals" are more equal than others I guess, and States are more equal than communities.
WSWSWSWSWS
‘Tenthers’ Would Abolish Wage and Child Labor Laws, Social Security, Medicare and More
by Mike Hall, Oct 21, 2010
Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.
They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.
Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment.
It’s a view that has long been discredited, but reappears from time to time, such as during FDR’s New Deal era and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
Here’s Think Progress in today’s Progress Report:
…because the Constitution doesn’t actually use the word education—it instead gives Congress broad authority to spend money to advance the “common defense” and “general welfare”—Senate candidates like Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Sharron Angle (R-Nev.) claim that the federal Department of Education is unconstitutional. That means no federal student loan assistance or Pell Grants for middle class students struggling to pay for college, and no education funds providing opportunities to students desperately trying to break into the middle class.
And that’s hardly the worst news tenthers have in store for young Americans. Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller wants to declare child labor laws unconstitutional—returning America to the day when ten-year-olds labored in coal mines.
Miller told Dermot Cole of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he didn’t believe the federal government had any right to establish child labor laws.
I asked him about whether he also believed that federal child labor laws should be done away with.
He said he is not against Social Security, unemployment benefits, the minimum wage or child labor laws.
But he doesn’t want the federal government mandating any of them.
Tenthers believe the states alone should–or more likely, should not–address these issues. Because states are in such financial straights these days, they can’t even pay for the programs, laws and policies already on their books. Hmmm? You don’t think tenthers are counting on that do you?
Click here to read The Progress Report’s in-depth look at the “tenthers” movement and here for more from Ian Millhiser at The American Prospect.
‘Tenthers’ Would Abolish Wage and Child Labor Laws, Social Security, Medicare and More
by Mike Hall, Oct 21, 2010
Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.
They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.
Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment.
It’s a view that has long been discredited, but reappears from time to time, such as during FDR’s New Deal era and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
Here’s Think Progress in today’s Progress Report:
…because the Constitution doesn’t actually use the word education—it instead gives Congress broad authority to spend money to advance the “common defense” and “general welfare”—Senate candidates like Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Sharron Angle (R-Nev.) claim that the federal Department of Education is unconstitutional. That means no federal student loan assistance or Pell Grants for middle class students struggling to pay for college, and no education funds providing opportunities to students desperately trying to break into the middle class.
And that’s hardly the worst news tenthers have in store for young Americans. Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller wants to declare child labor laws unconstitutional—returning America to the day when ten-year-olds labored in coal mines.
Miller told Dermot Cole of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he didn’t believe the federal government had any right to establish child labor laws.
I asked him about whether he also believed that federal child labor laws should be done away with.
He said he is not against Social Security, unemployment benefits, the minimum wage or child labor laws.
But he doesn’t want the federal government mandating any of them.
Tenthers believe the states alone should–or more likely, should not–address these issues. Because states are in such financial straights these days, they can’t even pay for the programs, laws and policies already on their books. Hmmm? You don’t think tenthers are counting on that do you?
Click here to read The Progress Report’s in-depth look at the “tenthers” movement and here for more from Ian Millhiser at The American Prospect.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American politics, opinion., tenthers, weird stuff
Saturday, September 11, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR ILLINOIS:
A THING THAT SCABS SHOULDN'T TOUCH:
There are some things that inexperienced and ignorant people just should not touch. One of the biggest things would be a nuclear power plant, but that is exactly what Honeywell did when they hired scabs to replace the employees that they locked out. The predictable result..."ooops". Here's the story from the AFL-CIO blog.
NPNPNPNPNP
Explosion at Honeywell Nuclear Plant Staffed by Strikebreakers
This past weekend, just one day after the federal government allowed Honeywell to start up core production at its uranium enrichment facility in Metropolis, Ill., with replacement workers, an explosion rocked the plant. No one was reported injured, but local union officials say the plant has not been in production since the blast.
For the past two months, union workers, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669, have been locked out of the plant after contract negotiations broke down over Honeywell’s demand that workers give up their retiree health care coverage and pension plans. Other issues include management demands to eliminate seniority, contract out about 20 percent of the work at the plant and make changes in overtime pay.
Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie says negotiations will not resume until Oct. 11. In the meantime, the workers are running a 24/7 picket line. Last month, 3,000 people from four states rallied in support of the locked-out Metropolis workers.
Safety is important at any worksite, but especially at the Metropolis plant. This facility is the only one in the United States that can convert uranium into the extremely deadly UF6, which is used in nuclear reactors. Since it is the only conversion plant of its kind in the country, it is critical that workers in the plant be familiar with that plant.
Lillie says it takes many years to learn the skills needed at the plant and the conversion process is hard to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.
Honeywell CEO David Cote, a member of President Obama’s deficit commission, locked out the 230 workers on June 28, even though they offered to continue working under the terms of their expired contract. Honeywell had proposed eliminating retiree health care and increasing workers’ out-of-pocket health care maximums to $8,500 a year.
In a letter to President Obama, the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) asked the president to remove Cote from the commission.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, Honeywell, Illinois, industrial accidents, labour., nuclear power, scabs, United Steel Workers., USA
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR NEW YORK:
MOTTS STRIKE GOES PAST 100 DAY MARK:
Molly has blogged before on the strike at the Motts' production facility in Williamson New York (see here, here, here, here and here). At least one of those posts gathered quite a bit of comment, including a mendacious posting from what I presume was a member of Motts management. Now this strike is beginning to take on epic proportions with national and even international (Canada) repercussions. On the one side is a corporate management that seems determined to live up (down ?) to the classic image of an evil top hatted capitalist, twirling mustache and all, with its CEO making $6.5 million a year and so "devoted" to keeping the company afloat that he was off on a "hunting trip to New Zealand" while the strike was ongoing. On the other side stands what one article in the Nation magazine describes as "gun fans, military veterans and motorcycle riders" ie a selection of ordinary people whom the "left" loves to look down on who are now carrying out the most visible example of class struggle in the USA. With, however, the support of the local community, of union members across the continent and even of some otherwise anti-union politicians this small band of workers may be the test case of whether the corporate ruling class can carry out their full program of 'peonizing' US workers.
MSMSMSMSMS
100 days of fighting the low waging of America:For 100 days, more than 300 Mott’s workers in Williamson, N.Y., have been on strike, fighting the low-waging of America. The Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the corporate conglomerate that owns Mott’s (of apple juice and apple sauce fame) has been trying to cut their pay and benefits—even though the company reported a net income of $555 million in 2009.
Tell Dr Pepper Snapple to back off its corporate greed and treat the Mott’s workers fairly.
Dr Pepper Snapple is taking advantage of the recession and high unemployment rates in the area to beat down the workers, members of RWDSU/UFCW Local 220. A spokesman told The New York Times recently the company’s just trying to take wages down to meet “local industry standards”—in other words, to make recession-era wages the norm.
Dr Pepper Snapple is demanding wage cuts that would amount to $3,000 a year per worker, ending pensions for new hires, cutting the company’s 401(k) retirement contributions and increasing employee health care costs.
This is a 142-year-old company with a product that’s as American as you can get—a company you thought you knew and could trust. It’s a company that symbolizes everything we’re fighting for—and everything we’re fighting against: the low-waging of America.
This strike isn’t just about Williamson, N.Y. As The Times put it, “if the Mott’s workers lose this showdown, it could prompt other profitable companies to push for major labor concessions.”
If America’s economy is going to recover, we need paychecks that can fuel consumption. And if profitable companies are allowed to use the recession to drive America’s middle class out of existence, it’s unconscionable.
Don’t be silent about the low-waging of America. Support the Mott’s workers who have been walking the picket line for 100 days. Act now.
Tell Dr Pepper Snapple to back off its corporate greed and treat the Mott’s workers fairly.
Thank you for taking action for the Mott’s workers and all working families. Please forward this e-mail to at least five friends and urge them to take action, too.
In solidarity,
AFL-CIO Working Families e-Activist Network
P.S. The RWDSU Mott’s Hardship Fund has been established to help aid Mott’s workers affected by the strike. Donations to this fund will be used to help offset hardships being faced by Local 220 members as a result of their strike against the corporate greed of Mott’s/Dr. Pepper Snapple. Please consider making a contribution to the strike fund by clicking here.
MSMSMSMSMS
THE LETTER:
Please copy and paste the following letter, and send it to Motts management at this email address:.
MSMSMSMSMS
Dear Dr Pepper Snapple,
With record-breaking profits, your company has no justification to cut the pay and benefits of the more than 300 Mott’s workers in Williamson, N.Y. In saying you want to bring their wages down to “local industry standards,” you are trying to take advantage of the recession and high unemployment rates to lift your profits even higher.
Your workers deserve better. And so do workers at other profitable companies that might try to follow your shameful example.
Mott’s is a 142-year-old company with a product that’s as American as you can get—a company we all thought we knew and could trust. I hope you realize you are jeopardizing a well-known, well-established and respected brand. That’s a lot to throw away.
I urge you to back off your attack on the Mott’s workers’ wages and benefits and do the right thing.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, labour, Mott's, Mott's strike, New York, RWDSU, solidarity., USA
Sunday, May 02, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR- KENTUCKY:
TWO MORE DEATHS IN AMERICAN MINES:
Following hard on the heels of the massive mining tragedy in West Virginia two more miners have recently died at their workplace in the state of Kentucky. Here's the story from the AFL-CIO Blog.
WDWDWDWDWDWDWD
by Mike Hall
The bodies of two coal miners killed in a roof fall at a western Kentucky mine have been recovered and removed from the mine. The two have been identified as Justin Travis, 27, and Michael Carter, 28. The roof collapsed late Wednesday night.
The nonunion Dotki Mine, about 150 miles west of Louisville, is owned by Alliance Coal Co. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) records, the roof at the mine collapsed 19 times in the year before Wednesday’s incident, resulting in 13 injuries. MSHA has cited the mine 11 times this year for violations pertaining to roof support.
State inspectors also cited the mine for roof support problems, including placing roof bolts too far apart, according to the Associated Press. Roof bolts are metal rods drilled into overhead rock layers to help prevent the roof from falling.
Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA staffer and longtime mine safety lawyer in Kentucky, told Bloomberg Businessweek:
Roof falls are the No. 1 killer of coal miners. When you have a lot of roof violations, it is very troubling.
Last week, Businessweek reported Dotiki had the seventh highest number of significant and substantial safety violations—321—since January 2009, according to a list of the top 20 coal mines with high numbers of safety violations.
The New York Times reports Alliance Coal’s vice president of operations is Kenneth A. Murray, a former district manager for the Mine Safety and Health Administration in eastern Kentucky who led the investigation of a January 2006 fire that killed two men at Massey Energy Co.’s Aracoma mine in West Virginia.
Wednesday’s fatal roof collapse follows the April 5 explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine where 29 West Virginia coal miners were killed. On April 22, a 28-year-old coal miner died at the Pocahontas Mine in West Virginia.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, deaths, Kentucky, labour, workplace deaths, workplace safety
Friday, April 09, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR-WEST VIRGINIA:
MASSEY MINE A REPEAT OFFENDER:
Coal mining has acquired a well deserved reputation as perhaps the most dangerous peace time way to earn a living. It seems, however, that the Massey Mine in Montcoal West Virginia has a particularly egregious record when in comes to safety violations. See the amazing story following below from the AFL-CIO Blog. The mine's owner, Massey Energy Company is apparently one amazing piece of work in terms of not just safety but also in terms of the environment, labour relations and general right wing politics. See the wikipedia article on Massey. Here's the story.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Massey Mine Cited for 450+ Safety Violations Before Deadly Blast
by Mike Hall, Apr 6, 2010
The Massey Energy Co. mine, where 25 coal miners were killed and four remain unaccounted following an explosion yesterday, was assessed nearly $1 million in fines for safety violations last year, including violations concerning escape routes and ventilation, according to federal records and news reports.
The mine is owned by Massey and operated by its subsidiary, Performance Coal Co.
Early indications indicate the blast was caused by highly explosive methane gas leaking from sealed-off areas of the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va.—the same cause of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 miners. New federal mine safety rules enacted after the Sago disaster included tougher new requirements for sealing off worked-out areas.
CNN reports that in 2009, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposed nearly $1 million in fines for more than 450 safety violations at the nonunion Upper Big Branch Mine, including penalties for
more than 50 “unwarrantable failure” violations, which are among the most serious findings an inspector can issue. Among those were citations for escape routes for miners and air quality ventilation.
According to ABC News, Massey was fighting the MSHA fines, including those for
57 infractions just last month for violations that included repeatedly failing to develop and follow the ventilation plan. The federal records catalog the problems at the Upper Big Branch Mine….They show the company was fighting many of the steepest fines, or simply refusing to pay them.
MSHA records also show that in at least six of the past 10 years, the Massey mine’s injury rate has been worse than the national average for similar operations.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former Mine Workers (UMWA) president and third generation coal miner, says, “The thoughts and prayers of America’s workers are with the families” of those killed and for the safety of the “courageous” rescue teams. He adds:
However, this incident isn’t just a matter of happenstance, but rather the inevitable result of a profit-driven system and reckless corporate conduct. Many mining companies have given too little attention to safety over the years and too much to the bottom line.
In 2006, a fire at Massey’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine, also in West Virginia, killed two miners. Ultimately, Massey’s Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty to 10 criminal mine safety violations and paid $2.5 million in fines related to that fatal fire. According to ABC, the two miners “suffocated as they looked for a way to escape.”
Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports. The two widows of the miners killed in Aracoma were unsatisfied by the plea agreement, telling the judge they believed the company cared more about profits then safety.
Tony Oppegard, a lawyer and mine safety advocate from Kentucky, told The New York Times, “Massey’s commitment to safety has long been questioned in the coalfields.” The Times notes a 2006 internal memo from Massey CEO Donald Blankenship.
In the memo, Mr. Blankenship instructed the company’s underground mine superintendents to place coal production first.
“This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills,” he wrote.
Last night, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), whose district includes the Upper Big Branch Mine, told reporters:
This is the second major disaster at a Massey site in recent years, and something needs to be done.
Meanwhile, the Charleston Gazette reports safety officials are looking at methane that built up inside a sealed-off area or leaked through the seals as the cause of the blast. In 2006, methane from sealed-off areas caused the explosions at a Sago, W.Va., mine that killed 12 miners and also at the Darby Mine in Kentucky where two coal miners were killed.
The new mine safety rules passed after the Sago and Darby disasters called for increased monitoring of air quality in active and sealed sections of the mines to avoid methane build up. The new regulations also required mine operators to install stronger barriers between active and nonactive sections of mines.
But, as Oppegard told the Gazette, “Seals can be deadly if they are not maintained and monitored properly.”
In a statement today on the explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, Rahall says:
We will scrutinize the health and safety violations at this mine to see whether the law was circumvented and miner’s precious lives were willfully put at risk, and there will be accountability.
Massey Mine Cited for 450+ Safety Violations Before Deadly Blast
by Mike Hall, Apr 6, 2010
The Massey Energy Co. mine, where 25 coal miners were killed and four remain unaccounted following an explosion yesterday, was assessed nearly $1 million in fines for safety violations last year, including violations concerning escape routes and ventilation, according to federal records and news reports.
The mine is owned by Massey and operated by its subsidiary, Performance Coal Co.
Early indications indicate the blast was caused by highly explosive methane gas leaking from sealed-off areas of the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va.—the same cause of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 miners. New federal mine safety rules enacted after the Sago disaster included tougher new requirements for sealing off worked-out areas.
CNN reports that in 2009, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposed nearly $1 million in fines for more than 450 safety violations at the nonunion Upper Big Branch Mine, including penalties for
more than 50 “unwarrantable failure” violations, which are among the most serious findings an inspector can issue. Among those were citations for escape routes for miners and air quality ventilation.
According to ABC News, Massey was fighting the MSHA fines, including those for
57 infractions just last month for violations that included repeatedly failing to develop and follow the ventilation plan. The federal records catalog the problems at the Upper Big Branch Mine….They show the company was fighting many of the steepest fines, or simply refusing to pay them.
MSHA records also show that in at least six of the past 10 years, the Massey mine’s injury rate has been worse than the national average for similar operations.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former Mine Workers (UMWA) president and third generation coal miner, says, “The thoughts and prayers of America’s workers are with the families” of those killed and for the safety of the “courageous” rescue teams. He adds:
However, this incident isn’t just a matter of happenstance, but rather the inevitable result of a profit-driven system and reckless corporate conduct. Many mining companies have given too little attention to safety over the years and too much to the bottom line.
In 2006, a fire at Massey’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine, also in West Virginia, killed two miners. Ultimately, Massey’s Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty to 10 criminal mine safety violations and paid $2.5 million in fines related to that fatal fire. According to ABC, the two miners “suffocated as they looked for a way to escape.”
Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports. The two widows of the miners killed in Aracoma were unsatisfied by the plea agreement, telling the judge they believed the company cared more about profits then safety.
Tony Oppegard, a lawyer and mine safety advocate from Kentucky, told The New York Times, “Massey’s commitment to safety has long been questioned in the coalfields.” The Times notes a 2006 internal memo from Massey CEO Donald Blankenship.
In the memo, Mr. Blankenship instructed the company’s underground mine superintendents to place coal production first.
“This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills,” he wrote.
Last night, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), whose district includes the Upper Big Branch Mine, told reporters:
This is the second major disaster at a Massey site in recent years, and something needs to be done.
Meanwhile, the Charleston Gazette reports safety officials are looking at methane that built up inside a sealed-off area or leaked through the seals as the cause of the blast. In 2006, methane from sealed-off areas caused the explosions at a Sago, W.Va., mine that killed 12 miners and also at the Darby Mine in Kentucky where two coal miners were killed.
The new mine safety rules passed after the Sago and Darby disasters called for increased monitoring of air quality in active and sealed sections of the mines to avoid methane build up. The new regulations also required mine operators to install stronger barriers between active and nonactive sections of mines.
But, as Oppegard told the Gazette, “Seals can be deadly if they are not maintained and monitored properly.”
In a statement today on the explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, Rahall says:
We will scrutinize the health and safety violations at this mine to see whether the law was circumvented and miner’s precious lives were willfully put at risk, and there will be accountability.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
If you want to help the community or keep informed of developments (such as the continued search for four miners still missing) here is an instructive article from the Take Part site.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
West Virginia Mine Disaster:
West Virginia Mine Disaster:
How to Help Families and Victims
At least 25 miners died Monday in an explosion deep inside a West Virginia coal mine—the accident is being called the nation's worst mining disaster in a quarter century. Rescuers are continuing to search for four additional miners who may still be trapped underground, and federal officials have launched an investigation into the explosion at the Upper Big Branch South Mine in Whitesville, W. Va. Two miners remain hospitalized.
Various relief organizations are on the ground in West Virginia to support the victims' families and rescue workers. Here's how you can get involved with the rescue and recovery effort:
•American Red Cross volunteers are providing food, comfort and emotional support to the victims' families and rescue workers. Click here to make a donation to the Red Cross's general disaster relief fund. The organization is not accepting gifts specifically for the West Virginia miners' families at this time. (NB- Molly )
•The Salvation Army has already provided food and water to victims' families and rescue workers. You can click here to make an area-specific donation to the organization.
•The West Virginia Council of Churches has set up the Montcoal Mining Disaster Fund. Click here to support the Council's efforts.
For updates about the mine disaster and latest news, several news organizations, agencies, and non-governmental organizations are on the ground in Whitesville:
•The Charleston Gazette's "Coal Tattoo" blog is one of the most comprehensive sources of news on the coal mining industry. Its lead reporter, Ken Ward, Jr, is a nationally-recognized expert on the issue.
•Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been providing regular updates to the media. His office has also ordered flags at half-mast throughout the state in honor of the victims.
•Massey Energy Co., the owner of the coal mine, has also been regularly providing briefings to the media and updates about their efforts to support the victims' families.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Meanwhile it seems that the Obama Administration has known for some time about the fiddles of mining companies such as Massey Energy and, true to bureaucratic form, has done essentially nothing. Here's a story from the Huffington Post about the delay and thumb twiddling amongst officialdom.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Obama Administration Missed Chance To Get Tougher On Unsafe Mines
Long before the explosion that killed at least 25 coal miners inside Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine on Monday, Obama administration mine safety officials were aware of a major loophole that allowed companies like Massey to avoid stricter enforcement despite alarming safety records.
Mining safety regulations were tightened in 2007, following an explosion the previous year that killed 12 miners at the Sago Mine, also in West Virginia. But mining companies immediately began gaming the new system.
Mines that are designated as having a "pattern of violations" are subject to a greater level of oversight. But Massey and others ducked that designation simply by lodging formal appeals against the major violations issued against them.
It turns out that, according to current rules, contested violations can't be taken into consideration when assessing whether a pattern of violations exists.
Contesting those violations also allowed Massey and other companies to delay paying the fines levied against them -- thwarting a key enforcement mechanism.
And all the appeals overwhelmed the commission charged with adjudicating them, creating a massive backlog that effectively allowed the companies to flaunt the rules indefinitely.
Joe Main, a former United Mine Worker of America official, took over the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA, pronounced em-sha) in October. He told a congressional hearing in February that the backlog has effectively prevented MSHA from applying the stepped-up enforcement mechanisms to mines with a pattern of serious violations.
"And I think the consequence there is that mines have the ability to continue that pattern unabated," he said. His conclusion: "[W]e must diminish the incentives for operators who appear to be developing a pattern of significant and substantial safety violations to contest, simply to delay enforcement."
But that was in February -- at a hearing called by a concerned chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).
And according to Celeste Monforton, a George Washington University public health professor and former MSHA official, Obama administration officials had known of the problem for more than a year by then.
"I feel very confident that when the presidential transition teams in December and January were meeting with the senior career people in the agency," she said, "they heard that, one, there's a huge backlog in the review commission and, two, this is neutering, or making impotent, the pattern of violations provision of the Mine Act."
So, Monforton told HuffPost, "The question is: 'What did you do, knowing on January 21st that they're gaming the system? What did you do?'
"It doesn't look like they did anything."
Actually, the Obama administration did add four administrative law judges to the panel of 10 charged with ruling on the contested violations, in an attempt to somewhat reduce the backlog. And they've now requested four more.
But the basic rule that the companies are exploiting remained unchanged.
Officials from MSHA and its parent agency, the Department of Labor, could not be reached for comment by HuffPost on Friday, but MSHA deputy Greg Wagner spoke at some length on Thursday to Ken Ward Jr., the award-winning mine reporter and blogger for the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette.
Wagner told Ward that MSHA reviewed the Upper Big Branch Mine for a potential pattern of violations as recently as October, but concluded it did not meet the criteria, despite an astonishingly high number of serious safety violations.
Wagner, Ward wrote "was not able to explain that decision."
"I don't know the answer to that, but I will get that to you as soon as I can," Wagner told Ward.
There's more:
Wagner said that the new leaders at MSHA under the Obama administration hope to rewrite the pattern-of-violations rules, which date back to 1990. But he conceded that MSHA did not include such a proposal on regulatory agendas issued in May or in December...
In describing MSHA's policing of the Upper Big Branch Mine, Wagner said, "I think we feel that we used the tools that we have available."
But Wagner said he did not know if MSHA ever sought increased fines from the Upper Big Branch Mine for "flagrant violations," as allowed under the 2006 MINER Act.
And he said MSHA did not use its long-standing legal authority to seek a federal court order against any condition at the mine that created "a continuing hazard to the health or safety of miners."
"We did not use that section of the act, no," Wagner said. "I'm really trying to get an opinion from our lawyers to explain to me really what constraints they felt really existed to keep us from going .... I don't think that's ever been used, and I think there's some reason that people haven't and I need to find that out."
The Upper Big Branch mine's abysmal safety record, and its passage through the mining bureaucracy has, by now, been extensively chronicled.
Ward wrote that parts or all of the mine "were ordered closed more than 60 times in 2009 and 2010, and the mine was repeatedly cited in recent months for allowing potentially explosive coal dust to accumulate, according to newly released government documents."
The New York Times reported Friday that the mine was warned in December 2007 that it had been issued 204 serious violations over the previous two years, a rate nearly twice the national average, and would soon be designated as having a pattern of violations. But in the ensuing three months, the mine was able to reduce its rate to just above the national average -- enough to avoid the designation.
MSHA in March 2008 praised Massey and six other violators for "successfully and dramatically" reducing their "significant and substantial (S&S) violation rates -- on average -- by 50 percent during the 90-day review period."
But according to the Washington Post, Massey's mine "met the legal criteria" to avoid the designation "in part because contested violations had not been resolved. Massey is still contesting 352 alleged violations at the Upper Big Branch mine, some dating to 2007."
USA Today reported on Friday that coal mine operators generally have used appeals to avoid paying all but $8 million of the $113 million in major penalties assessed against them since April 2007.
Upper Big Branch in particular "has paid just one major fine since 2007, which cost $10,750. It has appealed or is delinquent on 21 major fines worth $505,000, records show."
The Associated Press reported that the mine "was cited for violating two federal safety rules on the day of the blast."
United Mine Workers of America President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statement released on Thursday that 20 people had been killed at mines operated by Massey, its subsidiaries or subcontractors in the last decade -- prior to Monday's explosion.
"Every year, like clockwork, at least one person has been killed since 2000 on the property of Massey or one of its subsidiaries," Roberts said. "With those already known to be dead at Upper Big Branch, it's now up to 45 people in the past 11 years, and four more missing at this point. No other coal operator even comes close to that fatality rate during that time frame. This demands a serious and immediate investigation by MSHA and by Congress."
West Virginia's senior senator, Democrat Robert Byrd, released a statement on Friday:
Once we learn the cause of this disaster and investigations are completed whether it is wrongdoing by Massey, lack of enforcement by MSHA, or inadequacies with the mine health and safety laws, including the MINER Act of 2006, action will need to be taken...
[T]he more I learn about the extent of these violations by Massey at the Upper Big Branch Mine alone, the angrier I get. 57 citations in the month of March alone! Closed over 60 times during the past two years to correct problems!
To me, one thing is clear -- for a company that has had this number of violations at just one coal mine -- one must seriously begin to question the practices and procedures of this particular coal company and it needs the most serious scrutiny from the Congress and the federal regulators.
Meanwhile, Republican West Virginia Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito made it clear in her statement that the Obama administration's conduct should also be in question:
In 2009, MSHA cited 515 violations and ordered the mine closed 29 times. Upper Big Branch Mine has had 124 violations in 2010 already. In fact, MSHA faulted the Upper Big Branch Mine on the day of the explosion for inadequate maps of escape routes and an improper splice of electrical cable on a piece of equipment. It falls on both the mining company and the regulatory agency to make sure that a mine is safe and in this instance both failed.
I ask that as we move forward, we take a long hard look at the relationship of mine operators and MSHA and how we could have prevented this disaster.
At the congressional hearing in February, Rep. George Miller angrily declared that "delays from growing appeals are undermining MSHA's ability to impose tougher sanctions on the repeat violators... If cases are stuck for months or years in the review commission, MSHA cannot impose stronger penalties on the worst mine operators. As a result, miners' lives are in the cross hairs."
But the committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, defended the companies, arguing that "it appears mine operators are simply adapting to a punitive new regulatory environment that favors litigation and conflict over collaboration."
He expressed his view that "legislation and regulation may actually be the cause rather than the solution to the problem."
Matt Madia, who focuses on federal regulatory policy at the good-government group OMB Watch, sees MSHA's limitations as the result of a systemic problem.
"What's happening is you've got a relatively small agency with too few dollars, with too few inspectors, responsible for policing a huge industry with a huge lobbying presence in Washington. So who do you think's going to win that battle?
"It's easy to blame the bureaucrats after the fact, but the public and Congress and the administration are often not paying attention to these issues before tragedy strikes," he said.
*************************
Do you know more about the circumstances that could have prevented this disaster? How about factors that may have contributed - or could lead to - such mining tragedies elsewhere? Are you aware of situations in which people have been harmed, or where unsafe conditions persist, despite reforms and regulation that should have made those situations safer?
HELP THE HUFFPOST INVESTIGATIVE FUND INVESTIGATE
At least 25 miners died Monday in an explosion deep inside a West Virginia coal mine—the accident is being called the nation's worst mining disaster in a quarter century. Rescuers are continuing to search for four additional miners who may still be trapped underground, and federal officials have launched an investigation into the explosion at the Upper Big Branch South Mine in Whitesville, W. Va. Two miners remain hospitalized.
Various relief organizations are on the ground in West Virginia to support the victims' families and rescue workers. Here's how you can get involved with the rescue and recovery effort:
•American Red Cross volunteers are providing food, comfort and emotional support to the victims' families and rescue workers. Click here to make a donation to the Red Cross's general disaster relief fund. The organization is not accepting gifts specifically for the West Virginia miners' families at this time. (NB- Molly )
•The Salvation Army has already provided food and water to victims' families and rescue workers. You can click here to make an area-specific donation to the organization.
•The West Virginia Council of Churches has set up the Montcoal Mining Disaster Fund. Click here to support the Council's efforts.
For updates about the mine disaster and latest news, several news organizations, agencies, and non-governmental organizations are on the ground in Whitesville:
•The Charleston Gazette's "Coal Tattoo" blog is one of the most comprehensive sources of news on the coal mining industry. Its lead reporter, Ken Ward, Jr, is a nationally-recognized expert on the issue.
•Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been providing regular updates to the media. His office has also ordered flags at half-mast throughout the state in honor of the victims.
•Massey Energy Co., the owner of the coal mine, has also been regularly providing briefings to the media and updates about their efforts to support the victims' families.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Meanwhile it seems that the Obama Administration has known for some time about the fiddles of mining companies such as Massey Energy and, true to bureaucratic form, has done essentially nothing. Here's a story from the Huffington Post about the delay and thumb twiddling amongst officialdom.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Obama Administration Missed Chance To Get Tougher On Unsafe Mines
Long before the explosion that killed at least 25 coal miners inside Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine on Monday, Obama administration mine safety officials were aware of a major loophole that allowed companies like Massey to avoid stricter enforcement despite alarming safety records.
Mining safety regulations were tightened in 2007, following an explosion the previous year that killed 12 miners at the Sago Mine, also in West Virginia. But mining companies immediately began gaming the new system.
Mines that are designated as having a "pattern of violations" are subject to a greater level of oversight. But Massey and others ducked that designation simply by lodging formal appeals against the major violations issued against them.
It turns out that, according to current rules, contested violations can't be taken into consideration when assessing whether a pattern of violations exists.
Contesting those violations also allowed Massey and other companies to delay paying the fines levied against them -- thwarting a key enforcement mechanism.
And all the appeals overwhelmed the commission charged with adjudicating them, creating a massive backlog that effectively allowed the companies to flaunt the rules indefinitely.
Joe Main, a former United Mine Worker of America official, took over the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA, pronounced em-sha) in October. He told a congressional hearing in February that the backlog has effectively prevented MSHA from applying the stepped-up enforcement mechanisms to mines with a pattern of serious violations.
"And I think the consequence there is that mines have the ability to continue that pattern unabated," he said. His conclusion: "[W]e must diminish the incentives for operators who appear to be developing a pattern of significant and substantial safety violations to contest, simply to delay enforcement."
But that was in February -- at a hearing called by a concerned chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).
And according to Celeste Monforton, a George Washington University public health professor and former MSHA official, Obama administration officials had known of the problem for more than a year by then.
"I feel very confident that when the presidential transition teams in December and January were meeting with the senior career people in the agency," she said, "they heard that, one, there's a huge backlog in the review commission and, two, this is neutering, or making impotent, the pattern of violations provision of the Mine Act."
So, Monforton told HuffPost, "The question is: 'What did you do, knowing on January 21st that they're gaming the system? What did you do?'
"It doesn't look like they did anything."
Actually, the Obama administration did add four administrative law judges to the panel of 10 charged with ruling on the contested violations, in an attempt to somewhat reduce the backlog. And they've now requested four more.
But the basic rule that the companies are exploiting remained unchanged.
Officials from MSHA and its parent agency, the Department of Labor, could not be reached for comment by HuffPost on Friday, but MSHA deputy Greg Wagner spoke at some length on Thursday to Ken Ward Jr., the award-winning mine reporter and blogger for the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette.
Wagner told Ward that MSHA reviewed the Upper Big Branch Mine for a potential pattern of violations as recently as October, but concluded it did not meet the criteria, despite an astonishingly high number of serious safety violations.
Wagner, Ward wrote "was not able to explain that decision."
"I don't know the answer to that, but I will get that to you as soon as I can," Wagner told Ward.
There's more:
Wagner said that the new leaders at MSHA under the Obama administration hope to rewrite the pattern-of-violations rules, which date back to 1990. But he conceded that MSHA did not include such a proposal on regulatory agendas issued in May or in December...
In describing MSHA's policing of the Upper Big Branch Mine, Wagner said, "I think we feel that we used the tools that we have available."
But Wagner said he did not know if MSHA ever sought increased fines from the Upper Big Branch Mine for "flagrant violations," as allowed under the 2006 MINER Act.
And he said MSHA did not use its long-standing legal authority to seek a federal court order against any condition at the mine that created "a continuing hazard to the health or safety of miners."
"We did not use that section of the act, no," Wagner said. "I'm really trying to get an opinion from our lawyers to explain to me really what constraints they felt really existed to keep us from going .... I don't think that's ever been used, and I think there's some reason that people haven't and I need to find that out."
The Upper Big Branch mine's abysmal safety record, and its passage through the mining bureaucracy has, by now, been extensively chronicled.
Ward wrote that parts or all of the mine "were ordered closed more than 60 times in 2009 and 2010, and the mine was repeatedly cited in recent months for allowing potentially explosive coal dust to accumulate, according to newly released government documents."
The New York Times reported Friday that the mine was warned in December 2007 that it had been issued 204 serious violations over the previous two years, a rate nearly twice the national average, and would soon be designated as having a pattern of violations. But in the ensuing three months, the mine was able to reduce its rate to just above the national average -- enough to avoid the designation.
MSHA in March 2008 praised Massey and six other violators for "successfully and dramatically" reducing their "significant and substantial (S&S) violation rates -- on average -- by 50 percent during the 90-day review period."
But according to the Washington Post, Massey's mine "met the legal criteria" to avoid the designation "in part because contested violations had not been resolved. Massey is still contesting 352 alleged violations at the Upper Big Branch mine, some dating to 2007."
USA Today reported on Friday that coal mine operators generally have used appeals to avoid paying all but $8 million of the $113 million in major penalties assessed against them since April 2007.
Upper Big Branch in particular "has paid just one major fine since 2007, which cost $10,750. It has appealed or is delinquent on 21 major fines worth $505,000, records show."
The Associated Press reported that the mine "was cited for violating two federal safety rules on the day of the blast."
United Mine Workers of America President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statement released on Thursday that 20 people had been killed at mines operated by Massey, its subsidiaries or subcontractors in the last decade -- prior to Monday's explosion.
"Every year, like clockwork, at least one person has been killed since 2000 on the property of Massey or one of its subsidiaries," Roberts said. "With those already known to be dead at Upper Big Branch, it's now up to 45 people in the past 11 years, and four more missing at this point. No other coal operator even comes close to that fatality rate during that time frame. This demands a serious and immediate investigation by MSHA and by Congress."
West Virginia's senior senator, Democrat Robert Byrd, released a statement on Friday:
Once we learn the cause of this disaster and investigations are completed whether it is wrongdoing by Massey, lack of enforcement by MSHA, or inadequacies with the mine health and safety laws, including the MINER Act of 2006, action will need to be taken...
[T]he more I learn about the extent of these violations by Massey at the Upper Big Branch Mine alone, the angrier I get. 57 citations in the month of March alone! Closed over 60 times during the past two years to correct problems!
To me, one thing is clear -- for a company that has had this number of violations at just one coal mine -- one must seriously begin to question the practices and procedures of this particular coal company and it needs the most serious scrutiny from the Congress and the federal regulators.
Meanwhile, Republican West Virginia Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito made it clear in her statement that the Obama administration's conduct should also be in question:
In 2009, MSHA cited 515 violations and ordered the mine closed 29 times. Upper Big Branch Mine has had 124 violations in 2010 already. In fact, MSHA faulted the Upper Big Branch Mine on the day of the explosion for inadequate maps of escape routes and an improper splice of electrical cable on a piece of equipment. It falls on both the mining company and the regulatory agency to make sure that a mine is safe and in this instance both failed.
I ask that as we move forward, we take a long hard look at the relationship of mine operators and MSHA and how we could have prevented this disaster.
At the congressional hearing in February, Rep. George Miller angrily declared that "delays from growing appeals are undermining MSHA's ability to impose tougher sanctions on the repeat violators... If cases are stuck for months or years in the review commission, MSHA cannot impose stronger penalties on the worst mine operators. As a result, miners' lives are in the cross hairs."
But the committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, defended the companies, arguing that "it appears mine operators are simply adapting to a punitive new regulatory environment that favors litigation and conflict over collaboration."
He expressed his view that "legislation and regulation may actually be the cause rather than the solution to the problem."
Matt Madia, who focuses on federal regulatory policy at the good-government group OMB Watch, sees MSHA's limitations as the result of a systemic problem.
"What's happening is you've got a relatively small agency with too few dollars, with too few inspectors, responsible for policing a huge industry with a huge lobbying presence in Washington. So who do you think's going to win that battle?
"It's easy to blame the bureaucrats after the fact, but the public and Congress and the administration are often not paying attention to these issues before tragedy strikes," he said.
*************************
Do you know more about the circumstances that could have prevented this disaster? How about factors that may have contributed - or could lead to - such mining tragedies elsewhere? Are you aware of situations in which people have been harmed, or where unsafe conditions persist, despite reforms and regulation that should have made those situations safer?
HELP THE HUFFPOST INVESTIGATIVE FUND INVESTIGATE
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Government regulation is, of course, a highly indirect way to address such problems as work safety, and the mining industry is hardly the only field where such regulation has delivered far less than it promised. A more direct way to ensure safe working conditions is organization on the job. Here's a final story from the Digital Journal about the efforts that Massey Energy has put into preventing their workers from exercising their democratic right to unionize...and what this means in terms of workplace safety.
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Union-busting associated with Massey's coal mine disaster
By Carol Forsloff.
Brian Stansberry
Massey forced the unions out, and now non-union coal miners have died in a coal mine cited for 600 violations in the past 18 months, so does the lack of a union contribute to safety concerns?
Some people believe lack of unions is the problem of coal mine safety with respect to Massey and the recent tragedy of 25 miners who died in a West Virginia coal mine and 4 now stranded, left possibly to die because rescuers can't get near them.
A letter to the editor in the Dallas Morning News poses that very important issue that the writer declares people should consider each time they flip a switch and turn on the electric lights.
What's the skinny on Massey and the unions? Is that an important variable in the mine disaster? Is unionism designed to protect the workers in instances like this, and what happens when unions aren't involved?
In 2009 the National Labor Relations Board agreed with a decision that Massey Energy rehire 85 coal miners who said they had been discriminated against because they were union members. Union members have declared Don Blankenship, the manager of the corporation, to have an antipathy for unions.
Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey, is a Republican and has given large sums of money to various Republican candidates in West Virginia. CBS examined his tweets and found him against environmentalists and making fun of global warming and climate change as well. He has a record for making big donations to Republican candidates with the company giving 91% of its political contributions to Republicans since 1990.
According to the history of coal mining in Appalachia, for many years coal miners worked in hazardous conditions, made little money, had safety concerns, and were afraid to speak about their problems. When unions first attempted to enter the coal mining industry, there was widespread violence, resulting in the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars. When the union gathered thousands of members together in an organized community, that looked to government officials like an army, they were met by state and Federal troops. They were accused of being socialists. Many lives were lost, history declares, but no accurate count ever made. The union members were accused of treason, and the company officials allowed to continue business in the same ways they had historically done.
Coal miner supporters and union officials have accused Massey Energy of being one of the big bosses in the tradition of the coal mine owners of yore. They believe that safety measures, that the union would have insisted upon, would have been instituted had the union been involved.
History tells a lot about unionism, power, and disasters in West Virginia. There are those who wonder if it has been repeated with the one in the coal mine owned by Massey now.
As it is, they say, the result of having unsafe conditions, caused the recent tragedy. President Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers Union had this to say.
“I can absolutely say that if these miners were members of a union, they would have been able to refuse unsafe work… and would not have been subjected to that kind of atrocious conditions,” said Gerard. “In some places like in Australia and Canada, this kind of negligence would result in criminal negligence [charges] being brought against the management and the CEO.”
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) offered the following statement on April 5, following the disaster:
“The hearts and prayers of all UMWA members are with the families of those lost today at Performance Coal Company’s Upper Big Branch mine. We are also praying for the safe rescue of those still missing, and for the safety of the courageous mine rescue team members. They are putting their lives on the line, entering a highly dangerous mine to bring any survivors to safety.
“As a mine operated by a subsidiary of Massey Energy, the Upper Big Branch mine is a nonunion mine. Nevertheless, I have dispatched highly trained and skilled UMWA personnel to the immediate vicinity of the mine, and they stand ready to offer any assistance they can to the families and the rescuers at this terrible and anxious time. We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this."
Union-busting associated with Massey's coal mine disaster
By Carol Forsloff.
Brian Stansberry
Massey forced the unions out, and now non-union coal miners have died in a coal mine cited for 600 violations in the past 18 months, so does the lack of a union contribute to safety concerns?
Some people believe lack of unions is the problem of coal mine safety with respect to Massey and the recent tragedy of 25 miners who died in a West Virginia coal mine and 4 now stranded, left possibly to die because rescuers can't get near them.
A letter to the editor in the Dallas Morning News poses that very important issue that the writer declares people should consider each time they flip a switch and turn on the electric lights.
What's the skinny on Massey and the unions? Is that an important variable in the mine disaster? Is unionism designed to protect the workers in instances like this, and what happens when unions aren't involved?
In 2009 the National Labor Relations Board agreed with a decision that Massey Energy rehire 85 coal miners who said they had been discriminated against because they were union members. Union members have declared Don Blankenship, the manager of the corporation, to have an antipathy for unions.
Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey, is a Republican and has given large sums of money to various Republican candidates in West Virginia. CBS examined his tweets and found him against environmentalists and making fun of global warming and climate change as well. He has a record for making big donations to Republican candidates with the company giving 91% of its political contributions to Republicans since 1990.
According to the history of coal mining in Appalachia, for many years coal miners worked in hazardous conditions, made little money, had safety concerns, and were afraid to speak about their problems. When unions first attempted to enter the coal mining industry, there was widespread violence, resulting in the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars. When the union gathered thousands of members together in an organized community, that looked to government officials like an army, they were met by state and Federal troops. They were accused of being socialists. Many lives were lost, history declares, but no accurate count ever made. The union members were accused of treason, and the company officials allowed to continue business in the same ways they had historically done.
Coal miner supporters and union officials have accused Massey Energy of being one of the big bosses in the tradition of the coal mine owners of yore. They believe that safety measures, that the union would have insisted upon, would have been instituted had the union been involved.
History tells a lot about unionism, power, and disasters in West Virginia. There are those who wonder if it has been repeated with the one in the coal mine owned by Massey now.
As it is, they say, the result of having unsafe conditions, caused the recent tragedy. President Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers Union had this to say.
“I can absolutely say that if these miners were members of a union, they would have been able to refuse unsafe work… and would not have been subjected to that kind of atrocious conditions,” said Gerard. “In some places like in Australia and Canada, this kind of negligence would result in criminal negligence [charges] being brought against the management and the CEO.”
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) offered the following statement on April 5, following the disaster:
“The hearts and prayers of all UMWA members are with the families of those lost today at Performance Coal Company’s Upper Big Branch mine. We are also praying for the safe rescue of those still missing, and for the safety of the courageous mine rescue team members. They are putting their lives on the line, entering a highly dangerous mine to bring any survivors to safety.
“As a mine operated by a subsidiary of Massey Energy, the Upper Big Branch mine is a nonunion mine. Nevertheless, I have dispatched highly trained and skilled UMWA personnel to the immediate vicinity of the mine, and they stand ready to offer any assistance they can to the families and the rescuers at this terrible and anxious time. We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this."
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, coal mining, Corporate criminals, deaths, Huffington Post, labour, Massey Energy, miners., unions..., West Virginia, West Virginia Mine Disaster
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR:
SHOW OF SOLIDARITY WITH RIO TINTO MINERS:
Since January 31 borax miners in Boron California have been locked out by international mining giant Rio Tinto. The struggle has gained worldwide attention, and recently there was a show of solidarity from people in the Los Angeles area. Here's the story from the AFL-CIO blog.
ALALALALALALALALALAL
It’s a ‘Hard Land’ for Locked-Out Miners
by Mike Hall, Mar 21, 2010
Several hundred Los Angeles-area union members recently came together to lend support and solidarity to the nearly 600 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 locked out at Rio Tinto’s Borax mine in Boron, Calif. Now, you can get a firsthand look at this union solidarity in action with this slide show set to the word and music of Bruce Springsteen’s “This Hard Land.”
A caravan, organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, delivered more than $30,000 in food and other supplies to support the miners fighting the international mining conglomerate’s move to outsource jobs, convert full-time jobs to part-time temporary work, slash retirement benefits and gut grievance protections and other workplace rules.
John Kawakami, the federation’s communication specialist, put together this stirring slide show covering the day’s events—an early morning rally at a Dodger Stadium parking lot; the drive to Boron, 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles; and the delivery of the much-needed supplies to the workers and their families.
The workers were locked out Jan. 31, after they voted down the giveback-packed contract from Rio Tinto. According to the ILWU, Rio Tinto in 2009 made nearly $5 billion in profits, despite a worldwide recession.
The London-based company operates mines on five continents and has a long record of union-busting actions, according to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM).
For more information, visit Local 30’s website here.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, Borax, California, ILWU, labour, miners., Rio Tinto, solidarity., USA
Saturday, March 20, 2010
AMERICAN POLITICS:
BANKER GUILTY AS CHARGED:
The following item is from the AFL-CIO Blog. It describes a recent action in the city of Madison Wisconsin where a mock trial of JP Morgan Chase executive Jamie Dimon. The action was part of an extended campaign to put pressure on American financial institutions to create jobs.
ALALALALALALALAL
JPMorgan Chase Greed Brings ‘Guilty’ Verdict
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to wreck the economy, destroy jobs and the immoral use of taxpayer bank bailout money for millions in Wall Street bonuses.
JPMorgan Chase Greed Brings ‘Guilty’ Verdict
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to wreck the economy, destroy jobs and the immoral use of taxpayer bank bailout money for millions in Wall Street bonuses.
The courtroom was on a Madison Wis., street in front a JPMorgan Chase bank branch and the jury included dozens of union and community activists. The street theater was part of the AFL-CIO union movement’s two weeks of action across the country to Make Wall Street pay to create jobs and fix they economy they ravaged.
Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor, which organized the curbside drama, says:
We bailed out Wall Street now its time for Wall Street to bail out Main Street.
More than 200 “Good Jobs Now, Make Wall Street Pay” actions are planned through March 25. The rallies and marches will demand that the Big Six Wall Street banks–Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo–take the following actions:
**Pay their fair share to restore the jobs their actions destroyed.
**Stop their multi-million dollar lobbying blitz to kill financial reform.
**Start lending to communities, small businesses and others starved for credit.
Also yesterday, union members distributed leaflets in front of JPMorgan Chase branch in Baton Rouge, La., and rallied at a Bank of America office in Charleston, S.C. Today union activists in Butte, Mont., will march in the town’s St. Patrick’s Day parade carrying “Make Wall Street Pay” signs and banners. This afternoon, the West Virginia AFL-CIO, along with community allies, staged a rally in front a Wells Fargo/Wachovia Bank in Charleston.
Find out about events in your area here. If you take part in an event, be sure to send us your photo or video here.
You also can tell Wall Street executives to pony up and create good jobs by sending a letter urging them to do the right thing. Just click here.
ALALALALALALALALALAL
The Letter
I have to admit that I have my doubts about this one. Petitioning bankers to go against their self interest is something like petitioning the Devil to cease being the High Lord of Hell. Still, for what it is worth you can go to this link to send the following letter to assorted lords of finance.
ALALALALALALALALALAL
Dear [ Wall Street Banker ],
I am part of the fight to create the 11 million good jobs America needs--and I call on you and all the big Wall Street banks to:
I am part of the fight to create the 11 million good jobs America needs--and I call on you and all the big Wall Street banks to:
1. Pay your fair share to restore the jobs you destroyed.
2. Stop fighting financial reform.
3. Start lending to communities, to small business and to others starved for credit so they can create jobs.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, American politics, bankers, campaigns, economic crisis, events
Friday, February 12, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR-CALIIFONIA:
HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST DISNEY:
You know I've always held a visceral dislike of "The Mouse". The reasons are many and various, but one of the main ones is an understanding of how Disney has always exploited the workers who maintain its paper-mache fantasy worlds. Down Los Angeles way some workers are fighting back publicly against Disney management's attempts to squeeze the last drop of blood out of their labour. Their weapon- a public hunger strike which they hope will shame the Corp into some sort of decency. the idea that Disney management can feel shame may be a forlorn hope, but they may fear the adverse publicity. Here's the story from the AFL-CIO Blog.
)))))))))))))))))))))))
Disneyland Hotel Workers Fast For Safer Work:
by James Parks, Feb 9, 2010
Disneyland hotel workers began a water-only fast Tuesday to protest what they describe as life-threatening safety issues on the job. The more than 2,000 bellmen, dishwashers, room attendants, and cooks, members of Unite Here! Local 11, have been working without a contract since February 2008. They say new work requirements at three resort hotels and the villas at the Grand Californian Hotel have led to serious health problems among workers, including heart attack, stroke and musculoskeletal injuries.
Disneyland Hotel Workers Fast For Safer Work:
by James Parks, Feb 9, 2010
Disneyland hotel workers began a water-only fast Tuesday to protest what they describe as life-threatening safety issues on the job. The more than 2,000 bellmen, dishwashers, room attendants, and cooks, members of Unite Here! Local 11, have been working without a contract since February 2008. They say new work requirements at three resort hotels and the villas at the Grand Californian Hotel have led to serious health problems among workers, including heart attack, stroke and musculoskeletal injuries.
Disney management also is demanding to make drastic cuts in workers’ health insurance.
During the fast, eight Disneyland hotel workers, two Los Angeles International Airport food service employees–who also are members of the local–and one adult son of a Disneyland hotel worker will refrain from eating and consume only water. Fast participants will remain, 24-hours a day, in front of the Grand Californian Hotel, sleeping in tents on the sidewalk and surrounded by a large shrine to injured workers.
Part of the shrine will pay tribute to Grand Californian housekeeper Rosario Casas, who is out of work on disability after suffering a heart attack on the job in October. Casas said her doctor said the heart attack was due to stress.
Narciso Guevara, a houseman at the Grand Californian Hotel, who plans to fast, said:
"We’re fighting for our health. We need better, safer conditions on the job, healthcare we can afford, and even more importantly, we need the company to respect us."
Maria Navarro, a housekeeper at the Grand Californian, who was injured at work just three days after Disney remodeled the hotel, said she is fasting to bring attention to the injuries she and several of her co-workers have suffered.
Since the changes were implemented at the Grand Californian, things have gotten worse. There are many people in my department who are hurt, but work through the pain because they are afraid of losing their jobs. So much pressure creates an unsafe place. We must make it stop.
Throughout the fast, community and religious leaders, unions, musicians, students and residents will call on Disney to address the health and safety issues at the hotels to by participating in daily actions, rallies and concerts.
The fasting workers are blogging about the action at:
and more information also is available here.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, California, Disney Company, hunger strike, labour, Los Angeles, Unite Here, USA
Thursday, January 07, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR:
SIT DOWN IN SAN FRAN:
The following came Molly's way yesterday from the AFL-CIO blog. It says something about the times when even such a stodgy outfit as the AFL-CIO are willing to engage in the creative tactics of a sit in. All that Molly can say is that it is too bad that they didn't hold in the sit-in inside the hotel.
ALALALALALALAL
Hotel Workers, Trumka Arrested at Sit-In for Fair Contract:
by Mike Hall, Jan 6, 2010
More than 100 union members, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm were arrested at a sit-in demanding justice and a fair contract for San Francisco hotel workers last night. The workers have been without a contract since August.
The sit-in in front of the Hilton San Francisco followed a march by nearly 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 2, other union members and community and political supporters. Says Ingrid Carp, a cook for 29 years at the Hilton:
“We’re determined as ever to win a good contract. It’s wrong for corporations to position themselves to make billions with the coming economic recovery, and expect us to go backward.”
The action is part of a campaign to win fair contracts at several national hotel chains, including Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood. The profitable chains are using the recession as an excuse to demand health care benefit cuts in contract talks with more than 16,000 workers at dozens of hotels in San Francisco, Chicago and other cities.
At the rally before the march, Trumka told crowd:
“A job is a good job because working people fight to make it one. It doesn’t matter if the job is in a coal mine or a hotel, a classroom or a car wash.
“That’s why the struggle of hotel workers here in San Francisco and across our country is so important. If we don’t protect the wages and benefits and health care of hotel workers no job is safe, no worker is safe no family is safe.”
Tomorrow, Trumka will join workers for a rally and picket in front of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Along with the demand for justice for hotel workers, Trumka is in California this week to spotlight the need for job creation. We’ll have more on that later today.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, Hilton Hotel, labour, San Francisco, sit-ins, tactics, Unite Here
Monday, December 14, 2009
AMERICAN LABOUR:
'SCROOGE OF THE YEAR' RUNOFF:
The nominees have been chosen for the 'Scrooge of the Year' contest sponsored by the American Jobs With Justice group. Here, from the AFL-CIO Blog is the announcement about the "winners" and how you can vote for the evilest boss of the year. While looking over this contest don't forget to go over to the Canadian Blog Awards and vote for 'Molly's Blog' as the best 'Political Blog' of the year in Canada. One good vote deserves another after all. Voting at the CBA is open until December 19.
ûûûûûûûûûûûûûûû
Cast Your Vote for ‘Scrooge of the Year’:
by James Parks, Dec 14, 2009
It’s the holiday season and time once again to say “bah humbug” to the most cold-hearted and greedy CEOs, corporations and politicians who exemplify the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Cast Your Vote for ‘Scrooge of the Year’:
by James Parks, Dec 14, 2009
It’s the holiday season and time once again to say “bah humbug” to the most cold-hearted and greedy CEOs, corporations and politicians who exemplify the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge.
This is the 10th year that Jobs with Justice (JwJ) has “honored” the person or group that has done the most to “scrooge” workers. And given the current crop of nominees—Bank of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Hyatt Hotels, Publix Supermarkets and student loan providers—it looks like it will be a hard decision to pick just one.
You can cast your vote for any of these deserving nominees here. The winner will be announced Dec. 21.
First, there’s Bank of America, which had a hand in the worst of the subprime lending excesses, providing financing to four of the top five largest subprime lenders during the years prior to the crash. Among them, these four firms issued more than $320 billion in subprime loans from 2005-2007. As a result of these kinds of abuses, Bank of America helped crash the economy and then accepted bailouts and backstops totaling $199.2 billion.
Next, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the second nominee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has become a front group for a few narrow interests, not a membership association that represents the voice of mainstream American businesses.
The Chamber opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, paid sick days and other basic workers’ rights. Recently, members of the U.S. Chamber have been renouncing their membership—including major corporations and local chambers of commerce that have quit or distanced themselves, in large part because of the Chamber’s extreme stance on environmental issues.
In Boston, Hyatt Hotels fired the entire housekeeping departments of its three nonunion hotels, replacing long-time employees who were paid around $15 an hour with subcontracted workers paid the minimum wage. It gets worse: Hyatt required Boston-area housekeepers to train their replacements before they were fired.
At unionized Hyatt hotels in San Francisco and Chicago, Hyatt is using the recession as an excuse to roll back health care and other hard-won contract standards. In Indianapolis, San Antonio, Long Beach and elsewhere, Hyatt is fighting its own workers as they seek a fair process to organize a union. Penny Pritzker, who is chairwoman of four Hyatt-related companies, has come out strongly against the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to join a union.
Then there’s Publix Supermarkets, which had 2008 revenues of more than $24 billion, but refuses to pay just one penny more per pound for its tomatoes to directly improve worker’s wages. Publix also won’t work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to implement a code of conduct to protect farm workers’ basic human rights.
Other corporations, including Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Subway and Publix competitor Whole Foods, already have agreed to pay an additional one cent per pound. Publix, on the other hand, continues to purchase tomatoes from two of the growers tainted by last year’s modern-day slavery prosecution.
Finally, an increasing number of students depend on private companies like Sallie Mae, Citibank and other lenders for loans to finance their college educations, yet these loans get little oversight from government regulators. Private student loans are expensive and mostly variable-rate loans that cost more for those who can least afford them. They lack the flexible repayment options of federal student loans, functioning more like a credit card than a student loan.
Whoever wins the Scrooge award will join an infamous group. Last year’s winner was the entire lot of Wall Street executives whose unchecked corporate greed led to our nation’s economic disaster.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, contests, Jobs With Justice, labour, Scrooge of the Year Contest
Saturday, November 28, 2009
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR/AMERICAN LABOUR:
TWO MORE MURDERED IN COLOMBIA:
The following story is from the American AFL-CIO blog. the country of Colombia is one of the most repressive in the western hemisphere and it is particularly unsafe for those who oppose the narco-terrorists who hold power as American allies in that country. Molly has blogged repeatedly on this subject before, telling just how dangerous it is to be an ordinary unionist in that country, fighting for simple rights and a slight improvement in living conditions. Just as here in Canada the political elite in the USA want to reward the Colombian government for its sins of both commission and omission by granting a free trade agreement with that country. Just like here in Canada labour is opposed to awarding murders such privileges. Here's the story from the AFL-CIO giving one more reason for their opposition.
▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲
Colombians Mourn Colleagues Killed in Past Two Months:
by James Parks, Nov 24, 2009
When 14 Colombian trade union members were in the United States for a training program, they were unable to forget just how dangerous it is to support unions in their home country. During the two months they were here, four of their colleagues were assassinated.
Colombians Mourn Colleagues Killed in Past Two Months:
by James Parks, Nov 24, 2009
When 14 Colombian trade union members were in the United States for a training program, they were unable to forget just how dangerous it is to support unions in their home country. During the two months they were here, four of their colleagues were assassinated.
In a memorial service at AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., yesterday, we joined the Solidarity Center and the Colombian workers to honor those who were killed and to reaffirm our determination to fight for workers’ and human rights in that country.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told the group:
"We want our Colombian sisters and brothers to know that as we fight for basic trade union rights in this country, we are totally dedicated to their struggle to organize and collectively bargain in an atmosphere free of fear, terror and violence."
Shuler noted the AFL-CIO has recognized the courage, strength and valor of the Colombian union movement by presenting the 2008 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award to Colombian human rights activist Yessika Hoyos.
The Colombian workers participated in the Trade Union Strengthening program sponsored by the Solidarity Center, with funding and support from the U.S. Department of Labor. As part of the program, the Colombians joined union organizers on the ground for three weeks. They worked with organizers from AFSCME, TCU/IAM, North Shore (Mass.) Labor Council, Sacramento Central Labor Council and the Teamsters. TCU/IAM, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Teamsters also provided training for the Colombians.
Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists. At least 34 trade unionists have been killed this year in Colombia, with 10 deaths in the past eight weeks alone.
Jose Diogenes Orjuela Garcia, organizing director of the Colombian CUT union federation, said at the memorial service:
"We want to have a country where union rights and human rights are respected. If you add up all the acts of violence [against union members] there have been more than 10,000 in the past 20 years. "
Both Shuler and Garcia made it clear that the United States should not sign a free trade agreement with Colombia until the violence against union members ends. Says Shuler:
"The AFL-CIO stands with the…entire Colombian labor movement in their continued opposition to the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. We cannot permit a permanent trade instrument that incorporates a labor market based on the literal assassination of workers and their unions.
For us, these struggles are one and the same. We are fighting for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act not only to help end the unchecked violations of organizing and collective bargaining rights by employers in this country, but to set a new standard for the United States and its corporations operating in Colombia and throughout the globe."
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, Colombia, current events, free trade, human rights, international human rights, labour, murder, unionism, USA
Thursday, August 20, 2009
AMERICAN LABOUR-LOS ANGELES:
FREE SPEECH FOR SOME:
Now I must admit that anyone who makes a living from giving orders to anyone else has to be an A-hole, at least during working hours. Some, however, go over and above the degree of A-holeishness required and set themselves up for an induction to the Anal Hall of Fame. Such are the owners of the 'Vermont Hand Wash', strangely enough located in the city of Los Angeles California. I'm sure that simply naming a car wash on one end of a continent after a state on the other side indicates pig-headishness over and above the usual. Or am I missing something ? Does the state of Vermont have some sort of marketing connection to either car washes or "hands" ? Your guess is as good as mine. Up here in the frozen north nobody names a business after another province. The British Columbia Head Shop ? The Alberta Quick Oil Change ? The Newfoundland Fish Market ? Never, never, never.
In any case, abandon your previous conceptions of what lengths bosses will go to. Read the following article from the AFL-CIO Blog with at least two beer at the ready.
ALALALALALALAL
Justice for Car Wash Workers Too Radical for L.A.:
by James Parks, Aug 19, 2009
Looks like a billboard supporting workers’ rights is too controversial for the corporate hacks who seem to run Los Angeles.
Justice for Car Wash Workers Too Radical for L.A.:
by James Parks, Aug 19, 2009
Looks like a billboard supporting workers’ rights is too controversial for the corporate hacks who seem to run Los Angeles.
The billboard, outside the Vermont Hand Wash in downtown L.A., carried this “radical” statement: “Wash Away Injustice! Support Carwash Workers.” Before it was unveiled, the Vermont Hand Wash, one of the most notorious anti-worker car washes in the city, pressured CBS Billboard to pull it down before a rally took place in support of car wash workers who are fighting to join a union to improve conditions in the industry. Never mind that the language and design of the billboard had been approved in advance.
As the workers took down the sign, car wash workers and their supporters chanted, “Shame on you!” and “Don’t take it down!” The rally, with hundreds of workers in the Los Angeles area joining AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, members of Congress and local union, clergy and community leaders for the unveiling, carried on below the symbolically blank billboard.
Henry Huerta, director of the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) campaign, said:
"We came here today to unveil a billboard with a message to Angelinos to “Support Carwash Workers” in their struggle against exploitation by the owners of this carwash. Unfortunately, the company that owns this billboard caved to pressure from the Pirian family. They have violated our First Amendment Rights to Free Speech and are complicit in this employer’s violation of workers’ rights to Free Association. SHAME ON CBS BILLBOARD! AND SHAME ON THE PIRIAN FAMILY!"
Vermont Hand Wash worker Pedro Guzman said:
"We have suffered retaliation and intimidation by the owner, Benny Pirian. He took us into his office and interrogated us about our union activities. And he even offered to compensate me if I would work on his side against the union and my companeros. But I would never do that. Our struggle continues with the incredible support from unions, students, faith groups, old people, and young people, all of them willing to come out and sweat under the sun to show us their solidarity."
Sweeney told the crowd the car wash workers’ struggle is a perfect example of why the Employee Free Choice Act is needed. (Molly Note- the official unions in the USA seem to always promote the Employee Free Choice Act as the be all and end all salvation of the American labour movement. I think that an objective comparison to the civilized world in which similar legislation is in place shows that it hardly reduces the difficulty of organizing by any significant amount.)
"These workers have gone through hell trying to form a union to win just living standards.
No worker should face that treatment in this country we share. In America, every worker should enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of association.
In America, every corporation should be held accountable to the law. In America, every worker should be free to join a union and bargain for a better life."
Last year, the mostly immigrant car wash workers throughout Los Angeles formed the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee (CWOC) of the United Steelworkers (USW) to raise their standard of living, secure basic workplace protections and address the serious environmental and safety hazards in their industry.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) also issued a complaint in June alleging that Vermont’s management targeted and then fired three workers because of their organizing activities.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) reminded the audience the state’s Car Wash Worker law, passed in 2003, is set to expire this year if it is not reauthorized by the legislature. The law requires all car wash operators to register with the state as a means to promote good labor practices. Chu, who helped pass the law as a member of the state assembly, called on California regulators to reauthorize and fully enforce the law. (Time for another Molly Note here. If this law was so effective then why didn't it prevent the present abuses at the Vermont hand Wash ?????. This seems like rather special pleading to me. Is legislation some magic answer ?)
The effort to gain justice for the “carwasheros” is being led by CLEAN, a coalition of more than 130 organizations, including labor unions, immigrant rights organizations and environmental and worker health and safety advocates, working to improve working conditions in the car wash industry.
Huerta said the tragedy is that although the Pirians are among the worst offenders we have encountered in the industry, they are not alone.
The exploitative treatment of workers is rampant throughout this industry. Carwashes are simply sweatshops operating in plain site.
But with support from unions and the community, carwash workers from across the city are building a union and building a movement—for respect, dignity, and fairness on the job.
Labels: AFL-CIO Blog, American labour, assholes, bosses, freedom of speech, labour, Los Angeles, Vermont Hand Wash
