BY SALM KOLIS
PIKEVILLE, Kentucky - At hearings here July 13 and in
Benham, Kentucky, July 14, dozens of miners testified about
the falsification by the coal mine operators of coal dust
samples. Workers also described how the new stringent state
criteria make it almost impossible for a miner to win
compensation for black lung disease.
In December 1996 the Kentucky State Legislature passed House Bill One giving special weight to the opinions of doctors at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville medical schools in the interpretation of the chest X-rays that are used to determine if a miner has the disease and what the level of their disability is. The legislation also placed a time limit on requests for additional benefits as the progressive illness worsens. Black lung, or pneumoconiosis, is caused when coal dust settles in the lungs and robs a person of their breath.
The crisis confronting miners was exposed in a series of articles titled "Dust, Deception and Death" that appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal in April. The articles revealed that in the three years prior to the new law, about 80 percent of Kentucky miners who filed for black lung benefits received them. Only five of the 538 miners evaluated in 1997 were determined eligible. Almost 1,500 people die a year from black lung in the United States.
At a rally called by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) April 30 at the Kentucky capitol, 100 miners and supporters carried signs saying, "Black Lung Kills" and displayed pages of the articles on placards. Under the pressure of the widespread discussion, the State Legislature's Interim Joint Committee on Labor and Industry held a series of four hearings around the state with the last two in the coal fields.
The Benham and Pikeville hearings were held in the evening and their proceedings were videotaped. More than 100 people participated in each of the two meetings. Concerned about being fired, few working miners testified. Most of the testimony came from miners who have worked or are working at nonunion mines.
`They can't take my freedom of speech'
At the Benham hearing in Harlan County, which has been
the scene of battles between miners and coal bosses in the
past, a miner testified with his face still covered with
coal dust from the day's work. He took an envelope from his
pocket containing records he had kept on the readings from
the dust sampler on his mining machine in 1997-98 and held
it up for the committee to see. "I kept the numbers that
were on the dust cassettes, and these numbers never showed
up on the bulletin board."
Exemplifying the determination to get out the truth that marked the participation of the majority of miners at both hearings, he said, "When they hired me to be a miner they did not take away my freedom of speech."
In Benham a miner who worked at Shamrock Coal Co. said almost two-thirds of the workforce of 300 was laid off immediately after House Bill One was passed. The laid-off miners, most of whom had between 15 and 20 years in the mines, received a phone call on a Sunday telling them they were out of a job. Although the company has recalled some who were laid off, the miner explained, "The mine is going full blast. They're hiring young men and killing them."
Testifying in Pikeville on July 13, Burt Melton from the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) explained that for many Kentucky miners "the first medical confirmation of their having black lung comes on their death certificate."
At both hearings workers described the various ways they had seen the companies tamper with the samples they're required to take by the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. Dust sampling machines are turned off when conditions are dusty or the machines are covered with rags or tape or simply left in areas where there is little or no dust. Some testified that they received direct orders to falsify their samples, others said they felt pressured through threats of closing the mine into cheating on samples.
Workers also described the bosses' disregard for controlling dust to the level required by law. Water sprays on the continuous mining machines, used to help the dust settle, are left clogged and out of order. The maintenance of proper ventilation - crucial to clearing dust and noxious and explosive gasses away from work areas - is ignored.
At both hearings miners testified about the need for surprise inspections. The workers detailed some of the ways conditions are adjusted when a state or federal inspector is due for a visit. Production levels are slashed in half or more, ventilation is increased, or adjusted to ventilate only the portion of the mine being inspected.
"You know, we were going to bomb Saddam Hussein because he wouldn't let inspectors do their job," said miner Ronald Cole in the Courier-Journal article. "And I thought, `Man, you've got...inspectors right here in Pike County not doing their job, and there ain't nobody doing nothing about it.' "
Few of the miners who testified had ever worked in a mine where they had been represented by the UMWA. Virtually all had black lung disease. They told of having one X-ray after another of their lungs. Their attending doctors diagnosed their ailment as black lung, but the state- appointed doctors determined that they do not have the disease.
Support from miners in other states
Some people traveled considerable distances to attend
these hearings. This part of Kentucky borders on West
Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee. A group came to the
Benham hearing from the other side of the mountain, from the
Black Lung Committee in Wise County, Virginia. Wise County
was the heart of the fight in 1989-90 to defend the miners'
union against the assault by the Pittston Coal Group.
In Pikeville a representative of the Kentucky Black Lung Association, Susie Davis, described the human toll of the 1996 law. Referring to another struggle by miners she said, "Maybe miners in Kentucky will have to do what West Virginia miners did in 1969." Strikes and demonstrations and an occupation of the state capitol by miners and their supporters won the first black lung law in West Virginia in 1969. Breathing from an oxygen tank, the president of the National Black Lung Association, Mike South, testified in Benham. "The color that the coal operators see in the problem of black lung ...is the color of the profit margin they keep enhancing: green," South said.
In his testimony at Benham, UMWA health and safety director Joe Main noted that of 50 coal companies charged with sample fraud, only three were fined.
Early in the Pikeville meeting, one miner testified that he had never seen any tampering with dust sampling and that samples were taken frequently. As he was taking his seat, one miner stated in a loud voice, "His check will be in the mail tomorrow."
A delegation from the Alliance of Kentucky Coal, an employers' association, also made a presentation in Pikeville.
The May-June issue of the UMWA Journal announced that reprints of "Dust, Death and Deception," the Louisville Courier-Journal expose, are available from the UMWA Communications Dept. by calling Thelma Blount at (202) 842- 7321.
Salm Kolis is a member of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) in Pittsburgh. USWA member Jeanne FitzMaurice and Ned Measel contributed to this article.