Vol. 71/No. 32      September 3, 2007

This fact, which miners have long pointed out, was confirmed once again in recent articles in the Deseret Morning News and other papers. Federal inspectors have cited owners of coal mines across the state for more than 5,000 safety violations since 2004.

When workers demand safe job conditions, however, bosses demand more production, subordinating safety to profits. They push to get miners to work faster, longer hours, under more hazardous conditions—such as the dangerous retreat mining methods used at the Crandall Canyon mine.

This is what is happening, for example, at the nonunion Horizon mine near Helper, Utah, where miners report the company is starting retreat mining. When miners met with bosses there about fixing deteriorating roof conditions, inadequate bolts, and other problems before they start extracting coal pillars, the company’s response was, “Produce 30,000 tons of coal!”

In the days before the second collapse at Crandall Canyon, 12 miners on the rescue operation asked to be reassigned to other work because of concern about the dangerous conditions under which it was being carried out. The action by these miners was an early-warning sign that the bosses failed to act on.

These two examples show that workers are the ones who are concerned about safety and who take initiatives to protect life and limb, despite pressure from employers not to speak out on hazards. The bosses’ profit drive is responsible for the routine neglect of job safety. And workers cannot depend on the federal mine safety agency.

There is only one effective way for miners to fight for improved conditions on the job: to organize a union and use their collective power to enforce safety. As Mack Isaacson, a roof bolter at the Horizon mine, told the Militant, “After the Sago mine disaster [in West Virginia last year] there was a big investigation and promises of improvement, but all we have is more dead miners.”

“We need union representation,” Isaacson said. “I hope that by my explaining what is happening at the mine where I work, others will speak out about what is happening in their workplaces. The bosses try to burn in our minds the fear that we will lose our jobs, but we have to stand up for our rights to have peace of mind.”

That is exactly right. And these points are part of the growing discussion among working people today, in face of the Utah mine disaster, about how to ensure job safety and about the need to organize the United Mine Workers at every mine.

That is why supporters of the Militant are getting this paper into the hands of fellow working people as widely as possible. Reports have come in that the paper’s headlines on “Safety is a union question! No miner has to die” and “Organize the mines” have struck a chord among many. We urge you to join in this effort— help get out the facts and a working-class perspective.
 
 
Related articles:
Utah coal miners: ‘We want to mine 100 percent safely’
Workers respond to coal bosses’ unsafe productivity drive
Unsafe conditions are prevalent in Utah mines
‘Militant’ has long history in mine struggles in West  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home