Here’s a 2005 memo [pdf] from Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Coal:
If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e. build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills.
Yesterday’s explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine, which killed 25 men, was the worst mining disaster in West Virginia since the last explosion at one of his mines, which killed 13 in 2006.
For at least six of the past 10 years, federal records indicate, the Upper Big Branch mine has recorded an injury rate worse than the national average for similar operations. The records also show that the mine had 458 violations in 2009, with a total of $897,325 in safety penalties assessed against it last year. It has paid $168,393 in safety penalties.
EdTheRed
An idiot savant once said, “The more things change, the more they suck.”
Guess there won’t be food on the table tonight.
Lisa K.
You cannot count on corporations to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do-they mostly decided long ago that as long as it was cheaper to pay the fines than improve the workplace (or product) safety, they would pay the fines. The human toll was simply collateral damage as they went off to the bank-until something catastrophic hits.
The only way to make them accountable before something like this happens is to hit them in the only place that hurts-their bottom line.
someguy
Good men are still paying with their lives for Bush having gutted Federal mine safety and other occupational safety programs.
Keith G
Horrible. Hard to imagine the sadness enveloping that community. They will be in my thoughts.
Lisa K.
Just a continuation of the war on the worker started thirty years ago by Ronald Reagan.
WereBear
Butbutbut the wingers told me that corporations don’t do this kind of thing because it would be bad for business!
It’s the fault of people who buy coal? Aren’t they supposed to be the ones with all the power?
Lisa K.
Yeah, if we didn’t actually buy coal products, none of this would happen. It’s the consumer’s fault for buying the shit in the first place.
Kirk Spencer
I think it will be both interesting and educational to see the difference (if any) in how Massey and Blankenship are treated this time vis 2006.
bago
Almost the exact same thing happened to the refinery next to the one my brother works at last week.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2011531759_edit06blast.html
Lax safety standards, and since my brother is an industrial firefighter in the plant down the road, was suited up and ready to go, but turned back because of liability concerns. Sweet Jesus, he survives being blown up in Iraq, and then almost gets blown up here.
It’s enough to make a fellow not want to get blown up or away.
bago
If we had management clawback provisions, such as bonuses being held in escrow until the statute of limitAtions expired for criminal misconduct, I bet these operations would become incredibly safer.
Dave L
Big coal will suck W Va dry, leave it almost Hell, and then walk away.
And environmentalists will get the blame.
Linda Featheringill
This is a case of murder. Call it what it is. Well, maybe willful neglect. At any rate, it is a criminal offense. The decision makers should be tried for manslaughter at least.
I realize that we have too many people in prison, but we have room for a few more. We could find a place for these guys [or gals].
bago
It’s not murder. Sometimes shit happens. There was no specific intent, just the formula outlined in Fight Club. Profits – (Incidents x Damages). An ideal solution would be to pay all capital gains out of a pool of money that is the first thing to be drained when hit with liability torts.
This means that if there is a management fuckup, management pays before the shareholders do. By the powers of capitalism, you’ll see safety come first, if only to make bonuses a close second.
r€nato
another of the ‘hidden’ costs associated with using coal to make electricity.
got me wondering… whatever happened to that Montgomery Burns-like character in Utah who was president of the coal mining operation that had the last big coal mine cave-in? The asshat who was all up in the media’s grill because someone dared to suggest that the operation might have been run dangerously, the one who (foolishly) insisted on being the media person for that disaster?
stevie314159
Doesn’t he mean “coal pays the judges”?
r€nato
did you folks actually click on the PDF? There’s a second page, sent out a week later seemingly in response to the questions/comments he got from the first memo.
The 2nd memo basically says, ‘do what it takes to be safe, but don’t let it distract from production!’ Legal CYA as far as I’m concerned. If I were one of his direct reports, I’d know exactly what he meant: “keep things safe wink wink but if you want to keep your job safe, you better hit your production quota.”
Morbo
Well, we have to compete with China somehow…
Violet
@ bago:
This is an excellent idea. Is any lawmaker proposing it?
mai naem
But Alan Greenspan told me all about free markets and good corporate practices and decreased regulation being the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world. Massey was John Galt dontcha know. If you keep on regulating him, he’ll,well, take off to Ukraine and do the same stuff there and not pay taxes here.
SiubhanDuinne
@r€nato: I assume you’re talking about Bob Murray and the Crandall Canyon disaster? Main thing I remember about him was that he never met a TV camera he didn’t love, and Anderson Cooper pretty much gave him a nightly tongue-bath on CNN during that week, until the second disaster happened and the rescuers were killed too. He disappeared from the media at that point, but AFAIK he is still CEO of the company. Will try to spend a little time with Mr. Google in a bit, as my memory on the details of that tragedy is a bit uncertain (was it about 3 or 4 years ago?)
New Yorker
Deregulation will solve this. And tax cuts. Also too.
SiubhanDuinne
@r€nato:
I assume you’re talking about Bob Murray and the Crandall Canyon disaster? Main thing I remember about him was that he never met a TV camera he didn’t love, and Anderson Cooper pretty much gave him a nightly tongue-bath on CNN during that week, until the second disaster happened and the rescuers were killed too. He disappeared from the media at that point, but AFAIK he is still CEO of the company. Will try to spend a little time with Mr. Google in a bit, as my memory on the details of that tragedy is a bit uncertain (was it about 3 or 4 years ago?)
SiubhanDuinne
Oops, apologies for double post.
Osprey
Probably been stated, but if only we’d stop OVER-REGULATING the mining corporation, we could avoid such tragic accidents.
All snarkitude aside, has anybody read anything with regards to this being the end-result of another of Massey’s strip-mining operations? Like what happened in 2006, or is this just a shit happens scenario? I’m sure there’s some malfeasance somewhere if it’s Massey.
superking
Also, keep in mind that this is the same Don Blankenship and Massey Corporation that bought the West Virginia Supreme Court Justice–independently funding his campaignt to the tune of $3 million. The Judge, knowing his master, dutifully ruled in favor of Massey when the time came.
This spurred an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court which ultimately held that the Judge’s failure to recuse himself was a violation of due process.
So, the tragedy is horrible, but there are a lot of angles to this story.
Bobzim
Sago wasn’t a Massey mine, it was owned by ICG. The relevant previous disaster was the Massey-owned Aracoma mine fire in which the “coal pays the bills” memo played a part.
Godspeed, Hilda Solis. Make this Don Blankenship’s Waterloo. Fucking bastard.
Edit: I hope they strangle Blankenship with Fred Phelps’ entrails – the WBC assholes due to arrive in Charleston day after tomorrow with their “Thank God For Dead Miners” signs.
PaulW
@bago:
Sometimes shit wouldn’t happen if the companies spent the extra money out of their multimillion profit margin to improve working conditions.
I gotta ask: how many coal mine companies are in West Virginia, and how many of them have accidents like this every 4 years that KILLS PEOPLE?
At some point, a pattern develops, don’t it? Massey’s coal mine blows up, there’s outrage, nothing happens, judges get paid, wait 2-4 years, another Massey mine blows up, there’s outrage, nothing happens…
At what point should SOMETHING HAPPEN to make this ongoing farce STOP?!
PaulW
Phelps’ crew is going to show up for this?! Attention-seeking whores, aren’t they?
Osprey
Yeah, but he’ll show up with a bunch of tea-partiers with signs that read ‘Thank God for Dead Minors’ instead.
slippy
@ bago
Maybe if Blankenship were jailed for a term of 30 years for each miner carelessly killed by his lax safety standards, other mine owners would treat these accidents as something to be avoided, not ignored.
This is a clear-cut case demonstrating why we should not have limited liability protections for CEO’s. All it does is take responsibility out of the hands of the ONE person who is responsible.
tc125231
Only Progressives think something should HAPPEN to prevent further tragedies. Movement Conservatives are uninterested if there is no one who isn’t rich, or with a different skin color, who could be bombed. If the “White and Rich” appear to be at fault, they view that as synonomous with “God’s will.”
And under no circumstances should there be increased regulation.
Citizen_X
@r€nato:I think it’s more obvious than wink-wink. He tells his operators,
He’s saying safety is an extra part of the mine operations, something to be done with idle personnel and equipment, instead of one of the inherent costs of running a mine. It’s a cost-cutting philosophy for mine operation that leads to dead miners, and wouldn’t be allowed under laws that were properly rigorous and enforced.
Which is exactly why this guy gives so much money to Republicans.
Steeplejack
@Citizen_X:
And I would bet, from working in a company with a similar mind-set, that the operation is run so parsimoniously that there are rarely, if ever, any “idle” personnel and equipment to do the safety-related projects.
Mar
Wowee, I shouldn’t be surprised by these kinds of shenanigans, but I am.
Squeaky Smith
The neighbor does PT near the site of this “accident” where guys rehabing from mining accidents attend, so I’ve got the real skinny from the site. The rails at the top of the shaft are melted from the heat of the blast. Methane explosions don’t generate this kind of heat and violence. Those 4 missing guys are gone, and may never be found.
This was a 100% preventable coal dust event. Methane is mostly avoidable too, as mining machinery is manufactured with sensors that set off alarms when rising levels of gas are detected. They shut down before explosive levels of gas are reached. Unless an electrician has been told to divert the alarms. Methane is only explosive in a relatively narrow concentration, too much and there isn’t enough O2 to support ignition, too little and you just get a pop or puff.
Coal dust is preventable by spraying water at points where dust is generated and by spreading non-ignitable rock dust to mix with the coal dust. On a long-wall, you need to spray water on the shear or plow that cuts 8 or 10 inches of coal off the face every few minutes, and along the beltways where direction or level changes.
This prevents black-lung too, which is on the rise again, a fatal COPD-like lung disease. There are folk songs about black lung, and explosions.
The owner of the operation sends out memos about not diverting resources from moving coal to non-productive activities. Like controlling explosive dust and gas in the operations. Like obeying the law. It is murder. Deliberate killing of good hard-working men for profit.
PaulW
I’d ask why the unions aren’t screaming bloody murder about all this, but then I remember that unions are TEH EBIL nowadays and they have no power to do either jack or sh-t.
Squeaky Smith
This is the worst coal mining accident, or any kind of industrial accident, in the whole USA, since Farmington, back in 1968 or ’69.
There were no safety regs or inspections at that time. Thanks to the Republican Party there aren’t any right now either!
Thanks, St Ronnie! Thanks, Mr. Bush! Thanks Randians and T party guys! Making the USofA a better country every day.
Mister Papercut
I only today made the connection with the Massey Building that I go past on the drive to work and Massey Energy.
You’ll be glad to know that their company flag on the roof is at half-staff today. Y’know, to show that they care…
booger
The Banality of Evil: Not just for Nazis anymore!*
ps: This does not count as a Godwin.
LanceThruster
Isn’t tort reform just the thing to get the market to self-correct (according to goppers)? Time not spent defending yourself from expensive negligence lawsuits would clearly result in those resources being put towards mine safety (Yeah, right). The damned libruls might have just as well caused the disaster themselves with their short-sighted penalties for unsafe corporate policies. Next they’ll want to ensure a fair wage and the mines will have to replace skilled workers with anyone desperate enough to work under such dangerous conditons.
booger
That sick sleazeball Blankenship should have to do community service for the rest of his miserable blighted life–working on the longwall, listening to Ted Nugent, living, working, eating and sleeping underground in one of his deathtrap mines without ever seeing the light of day again.