Mine Safety Subordinated to Mining Company Interests

Only 1 survivor in W. Va. coal mine disaster

John Bennett, whose father Jim Bennett was one of the victims and had been
due to retire in April, complained that his father would ?tell me how unsafe the
mine is.?

Problems at the mine had been ?going on for months ... and they still send
men in,? Bennett told ?Today,? adding that he felt that if the mine owner had
allowed workers to unionize the violations wouldn?t have happened.

Safety Violations Have Piled Up at Coal Mine

In the past two years, the mine was cited 273 times for safety violations,
of which about a third were classified as "significant and substantial,"
according to documents compiled by the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health
Administration (MSHA). Many were for problems that could contribute to
accidental explosions or the collapse of mine tunnels, records show.

In addition, 16 violations logged in the past eight months were listed as
"unwarrantable failures," a designation reserved for serious safety infractions
for which the operator had either already been warned, or which showed
"indifference or extreme lack of care," said Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA senior
adviser.

Mine Safety Subordinated to Mining Company Interests

OMB Watch has been monitoring and reporting on these developments throughout
this time. Our recent report, Special Interest Takeover: The Bush Administration
and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards (available here),

http://www.sensiblesafeguards.org/sit.phtml

documents the rollbacks of mine-related workplace and environmental protections
and highlights the problem of the "foxes in the henhouse"...



Alan

"Can't you see we're still here,
Can't you see we're still here,
Singing loud; Singing clear,
We shall not go under,
We're still here."

Nemesis Peace Centre

http://www.veloceraptor.free-online.co.uk/protector.html

Abuse of Women and Children

http://theoriginalfirebird.blogspot.com/

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http://lordcerneabbas.blogspot.com/

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http://lordcerneabbastoo.blogspot.com/

.

Relevant Pages

  • OT A CASE FOR STRONG UNIONS: SAFETY VIOLATIONS AT WEST VIRGINIA MINE
    ... Safety a problem at mine ... Labor Department officials in Washington said Wednesday that West ... Agency records indicate the mine was cited for 180 safety violations ... He said federal inspectors had spent 744 man-hours in the mine last ...
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  • Re: Bush collapses mine
    ... the acting director of the Mine Safety and Health ... The Bush Administration nominee to head the Mine Safety and Health ...
    (rec.gambling.poker)
  • Re: UK Safety Societies
    ... > Paul E. Bennett wrote: ... >>> Does anybody know of any proffesional bodies in the UK for companies ... >>> involved in industrial safety? ...
    (sci.engr.safety)