The death of 13 coal miners in a mine explosion at a Jim Walter mine in Brookwood, Alabama, is the result of the relentless drive for profits by the company, which ignored warnings by union members of the potential for such a disaster. My campaign extends our solidarity to the families of the men who were killed and the fellow members of the United Mine Workers of America who work at the mine.

From the record of government citations of the company and statements by miners employed there, it is clear that the company could have prevented the disaster. The facts show that Jim Walter coal mines--No. 4, No. 5, and No. 7--have one of the worst safety records in the country: from fatalities--nine reported since 1995, including one just last month at a Jim Walter prep plant--to workplace injuries, to safety citations above the national average. Combined, Jim Walter mines in Alabama were cited for more than 10,000 safety violations since 1995.

The Brookwood disaster is the worst mining accident in the United States since 1984, when 27 miners were killed in a fire at the Wilberg mine in Utah. It is worth remembering that at the time of the fire the bosses at the Wilberg mine were pushing workers to set a 24-hour longwall world production record. In 1984, the UMWA called the deaths of the 27 miners "needless." The same can be said about the 13 coal miners at Jim Walters.

The deaths of the miners are part and parcel of the worsening conditions working people confront the world over. In the United States, capitalists in the meatpacking, garment, airline, auto, transportation, and other industries have carried out a relentless course of speedup, disregard for safety, lengthening of the workday and workweek, and other measures that place the lives and limbs of working people a distant second behind their quest for ever-greater profits. We should reject the bosses' frantic hurry to load coal and fatten their wallets.

As the U.S. rulers gears up for military aggression against Afghanistan, we can expect more attacks on workers rights, including more explosions and workplace accidents. Working people and our unions should reject company and government appeals to "sacrifice" for the war effort, and instead continue to resist the employers' attacks. The memorial day called by the UMWA September 27, shutting down all union mines in the state, is a good example for the labor movement.

Beneath the whip of the profit drive by the mine owners--most of whom are among the largest energy monopolies in the world--conditions in the mines and coal mining communities are getting worse, not better. In the face of these and other attacks, the UMWA has begun to rekindle efforts to organize nonunion coal miners from Massey Energy mines in southern West Virginia and Kentucky, which are overwhelmingly nonunion, to miners at Black Beauty mines (owned by Peabody) in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The UMWA is standing up to antiunion assaults from the coal bosses, in particular, Robert Murray, who owns the Maple Creek mine and Ohio Valley Coal. The union is playing a bigger role in the fight for black lung compensation, as well as reaching out to coalfield residents affected by coal slurry spills and other environmental disasters.

Our campaign points to the deepening resistance of working people to the employers' and government assault as the road forward. As Washington steps up its wars abroad and at home against working people, workers and farmers will more and more have the opportunity to fight to replace the government of the superwealthy capitalist ruling class with one of their own.
 
 
Related articles:
Miners say company at fault in Alabama deaths
Coal miners respond to antiunion drive
 
 
 
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