Coal baron Don Blankenship’s Massey Energy has prevented miners from attending funerals of the 29 victims of the killer explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, WV. Brad Johnson has the story in this TP repost.
Massey has taken steps to keep up the mining in the grief-stricken community. The “threat of job loss” from Massey’s non-union mines, “be it spoken or simply understood “” has created a culture of fear in some corners of Southern West Virginia, where coal is the only real industry, and Massey is king of the hill”:
Massey Energy, the Virginia-based coal giant that runs the Upper Big Branch Mine, has denied time off for miners to attend their friends’ funerals; has rejected makeshift memorials outside the mine site; and, in at least one case, required a worker to go on shift even though the fate of a relative “” one of the victims of the April 5 disaster “” remained unknown at the time, according to some family members and other sources familiar with those episodes. In short, the company might be taking heat for putting profits and efficiency above its workers, but it doesn’t appear to have changed its tune in the wake of the worst mining tragedy in 40 years.
“They told my husband, ‘You’ve got a job to do and you’re gonna do it,’” the wife of one Massey miner told the Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis, referring to the funerals he’s missed this month for friends who died in the blast. “What else are we gonna do?”
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What’s new? Massey Coal is managed by sociopaths, and their Board and major investors share responsibility.
He is inhumane, ugly in an evil way, and should be behind bars. Period.
With all the guns in West Virginia you would think Blankenship and his buddies would tread lightly right now.
Time to send in Michael Moore.
How about we pressure the Environmental Defense Fund to kick Stanley Druckenmiller, a big Massey Energy investor, off of their board of directors.
http://www.alternet.org/story/146462/how_bubble_barons_protected_their_influence_while_the_economy_tanked/
Here is the relevant quote:
One of the handful of major investors in the coal company is Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire hedge fund manager researched as part of last month’sAlterNet/LittleSis.org investigation of the bubble barons. Druckenmiller sits on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an organization that would seem to be opposed to Massey’s exploits. He apparently saw the company’s abysmal safety record as no cause for concern before throwing roughly $200 million at the company, one of his biggest investments as of December 2009. And he was not put off by the company’s controversial environmental practices — Massey is a leading practitioner of mountaintop removal mining, and Blankenship a leader in the climate change denial movement.
Union rules. Looks like workers are under strick union contracts.
The only reason you are on this ship is to row.
It’s time to arrest Massey CEO Don Blankenship for impersonating a human being, any human being!
EyeVBear, #5, there are a ton of phonies who join mainstream NGO’s, and throw tax deductible cash at them. Druckenmiller doesn’t give a shit about the environment, or he wouldn’t be a major Massey investor. All those guys care about is money.
No punishment is harsh enough for these greedy criminals. West Virginians should be embarrassed by allowing these creeps to take advantage of so many of its citizens that are just trying to eke out a living in a very dangerous environment. Blankenship, Drunckenmiller, and their ilk are BASTARD COATED BASTARDS WITH BASTARD FILLING.
Even if they weren’t on union contracts (I don’t know if this particular mine has one or not) do you actually think they would have allowed them to anyways?
This is sadistic retribution against the miners for a catastrophe they’re not responsible for. They probably don’t want them going to the funerals, because it would draw the press and give them more bad pr. That and of course, profits.
What has left me disgusted is the constant refrain of “how dangerous mining is”. Mining itself isn’t that dangerous. Working in mines that are controlled by Don Blankenship and Massey? Now, that’s dangerous!
Time to support the union! Your either with Blankenship and his goons or with the workers and the union. Which side are you on?