Corporate Power and Natural Disasters: Coal Mining Today

The mine collapse that took the lives of six miners this August (and shortly thereafter three would-be rescuers) in Crandall Canyon, Utah was caused, company spokesmen argued, by an earthquake.  Similarly, management attributed the explosion that took the lives of 16 miners at a Sago, West Virginia mine in 2006 to a lightning strike. Both claims were subsequently exposed as false - not nature, but an industry culture that values the coal brought up from under the ground over the lives of those who do the work, was responsible. This can be seen in what the two mines shared: numerous safety violations. There were 202 citations at Sago in 2005, 324 citations the past three years at Crandall Canyon - all without meaningful penalties. three years Significant too, each was a non-union mine.

A high accident and death rate - averaging about 20 per year since the advent of the Bush Administration - is not simply due to mining being a dangerous occupation. Previous generations saw worse conditions - about 1,000 miners died yearly in the 1940s and even as late as 1980 the number of deaths totaled over 300. Union activism and government regulation, however, brought those numbers down dramatically until the current rise (which impacts a smaller workforce, as currently there are about 75,000 working miners in the U.S.). Moreover, at

Crandall Canyon, Sago, and at other cave-ins, particular warnings that miners were being put in risky situations were ignored, particular measures that might have saved lives after a disaster were not taken. Behind this lie calculated decisions, rooted in the desire to expand coal production as part of the solution to the country's energy needs - and, not coincidentally, as a support to an industry with close ties to the Administration. This has meant increasing allowable dust levels, reversing previous gains made protecting miners from black lung disease (about 1,000 retired miners still die annually because of its lingering effects), while cutbacks in Mine Safety Health Administration inspectors and inspections, fines and enforcement, have sometimes had more immediately fatal consequences.

The other side of the problem is a weakening of the United Mine Workers (UMW) after decades of relentless industry assaults; recent history puts this in perspective. In the mid-1960s the UMW had reached the depths of corruption and class collaboration, exemplified by its agreement with management's denial of black lung medical benefits.  A rank-and-file movement arose which, as it grew, faced increasing violence, culminating in the 1969 murder of opposition leader Jack Yablonski along with his wife and daughter. The movement persisted,

however, and, despite defeats and reversals, by the early 1980s miners had regained control of their union. Giving meaning to this battle was a 1969 wildcat strike of 40,000 miners, a multi-state strike in the 1970s in defiance of a Carter Administration anti-strike order, and the 2,000-strong months-long 1989 strike at Pittston that utilized mass actions, that survived mass arrests, to beat back an attempt to destroy the union.

Nonetheless, the Pittston strike also was a sign of the extent to which coal industry strategies had begun to weaken miners' organization; thereafter few significant battles have been won.  Increased production with a smaller workforce - for example, 41,191 miners (95% union) produced 139.3 million tons of coal in West Virginia in 1969; by 2003, 17,014 miners (33% union) produced 145.9 million tons - has meant unemployment, causing workers to accept unsafe jobs and making the assertion of union rights more difficult (a reality auto workers are facing too). Employers have also borrowed a technique used to break construction unions, closing a union mine then re-opening non-union. This is what took place in Harlan County, Kentucky where a 13-month 1973 strike won union recognition, yet not a single union mine remains open in the county today (5 workers were killed at one such non-union mine with numerous safety violation in 2006).  This is facilitated by the industry use of "captive mines," small independent operators wholly dependent on large mining corporations who therefore only indirectly employ the workforce. Similar to how the (non-union) poultry industry is run, the squeeze this puts on profits makes those operators careless of miners' lives, hostile to any union activity.

These developments are the consequence of capital's overall offensive against labor and are no more "natural" than were the accidents in Crandall County and Sago. Withal, the UMW remains present in the coalfields (representing 20% of the workforce), its leadership remains dedicated and militant - but by itself this is insufficient to overcome prevailing conditions. Labor activism needs to be renewed everywhere, built on a renewed confidence by workers in their ability to act. A long road to travel to get there, along the way it may be useful to remember remarks Yablonski made in 1969, as valid today as then: "There's one more thing we need to do in this country, and that's to get the hell out of Vietnam. Nothing was ever achieved in the world without getting militant. Young people in America today, if they are to cope with the wealth that is milking our country, better get militant or they are going to pay a terrible price in the future."

Kurt Stand
submitted to Junge Welt, October 2007

Sources:

New York Times :
"Safety Agency is Questioned on Collapse at Utah Mine" by Sarah Abruzzese, 9/6/07; "Mine Owner Has History of Run-ins on Work Issues" by Susan Saulny and Carolyn Marshall, 8/24/07; "Mine Safety Leader Loses Some Respect for Actions in Utah" by Cara Buckley and Dan Forsch, 8/24/07; "Bid to Reopen Mine Divides Grieving Town" by Susan Saulny and Cara Buckley, 8/22/07; "Despite Mine Law, Tracking is Years Away" by Cara Buckley, 8/22/07; "Grim Rescuers Halt Search After 3 Deaths" by Dan Forsch and N.R. Kleinfield, 8/18/07; "Utah Coal Area, A region Apart, Knows Well the Perils of Mining" by Kirk Johnson, 8/9/07; "Safety Issues Slow Mine Rescue Efforts" by Kirk Johnson, 8/8/07; "Six Trapped After a Shaft Collapses in a Utah Coal Mine" by Martin Stolz, 8/7/07; "Mine Union Report on the Sago Disaster Contradicts Earlier Findings" by Daniel Heyman, 3/16/07; "State Report Faults Seals in Mine Disaster" by Ian Urbina, 7/20/06; "Mine Where 5 Died had History of Violations" by Ian Urbina, 5/23/06; "West Virginia Governor Urges Mining Moratorium" by Ian Urbina, 2/2/06; "Endemic Problems of Safety in Coal Mining" by Gardiner Harris, 1/10/06.

Nation:
"Harlan County Blues" by Erik Reece, 7/17/07; "Why Mine Deaths Are Up" by Peter Dreier, 6/12/06; "Who Killed the Miners" Editorial, 2/27/06;

Z Magazine
"The News Media and Big Coal" by Christopher Martin, April 2006

Labor Notes
"Can Coal Mining Deaths be Avoided" by Jordan Borab, February 2006

Monthly Review
"Rank-and-File Rebellions in the Coalfields, 1964-80" by Paul Nyden, March 2007

Note: Quote by Jack Yablonski is from Nyden article, Monthly Review