The indictment alleges numerous violations of the Mine Safety and Health Act, a federal law intended to wipe out the two most common diseases caused by coal mine dust, black lung, and silicosis. The law calls for adequate ventilation and testing of coal dust levels. If convicted on all counts, KenAmerican faces a fine of up to $11 million. The four bosses face maximum penalties of prison terms ranging up to 102.5 years and fines ranging up to $5.4 million.

United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts issued a sharply-worded statement May 10 declaring: "Wednesday’s action against KenAmerican will spark a renewed interest by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to fully enforce the laws governing dust levels in our nation’s coal mines. If these charges hold up and appropriate fines are assessed and convictions made, the UMWA believes it will send a very strong message to operators nationwide who abuse the system and break the law that they can and will be held accountable for their actions. That alone is a huge step in the right direction. No coal miner, union or nonunion, deserves to jeopardize his or her health and safety for the sake of company profit."  
 
Rogues gallery
The rogues gallery of bosses and the penalties they face is as follows: Kenneth Tucker, a foreman, up to 102.5 years in prison, a $5.4 million fine, and supervised release for three years; Bobby Gibson, a superintendent, up to 19.5 years in prison, a $1.4 million fine, and supervised release for three years; William Mallicoat, a superintendent, up to 13.5 years in prison, an $805,000 fine, and supervised release for three years; Andrew Hickerson, a foreman, up to nine years in prison, a $900,000 fine, and one year of supervised release.

In addition, the grand jury named three of the bosses for illegally alerting workers when federal safety inspectors were on the Paradise Mine site so that violations could be covered up. The indictment also charges Tucker with filing safety reports saying no hazardous conditions had been observed in the mine, when in fact they had been.

All four bosses are also charged with allowing mining equipment to be used without adequate ventilation. In one instance, an unnamed company official allegedly threatened to fire miners if they refused to operate two sets of mining equipment on the same intake air, a practice specifically forbidden by MSHA because miners are forced to work in heavily polluted air. In another example, the supervisors allegedly failed to use sufficient ventilation curtains to keep dust levels down.

Another allegation states that KenAmerican directed miners not to wear dust sampling devices, or collected the devices before the end of a shift, so they would not register the "excessive coal dust" in the mine.

In a prepared statement, KenAmerican president Gentry said, "These charges are the result of an overzealous prosecution driven by outside influences."  
 
A Robert Murray mine
KenAmerican Resources is one of the gems in the empire of Coal magnate Robert Murray, according to a corporate profile by industry magazine Coal Age in 1999. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the main customer of KenAmerican.

Murray is the largest independent coal operator in the United States. Many of his mines are run nonunion. Where miners have organized into the UMWA, he has forced them to take substandard contracts. Recently, after a seven-year battle, miners at his Maple Creek mine in Pennsylvania forced Murray to sign a "me too" agreement comparable to the national Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) agreement.

Gibson, one of those indicted, bragged to Coal Age that the mine’s continuous mining supersections--a mining section with two continuous mining machines--eliminated miner helpers by giving crews hand held communications devices and forcing shuttle car operators to do double duty.

Likewise, Gentry touted KenAmerican bosses’ methods when he told Coal Age, "Our operating style is a bit different, and so too is our management style. When we have a good month in safety, in production, and costs, we fire up the grills outside and have a cookout at the end of the shifts. It’s part of our team building, a demonstration of our appreciation for jobs well done. And it works."

The indictment comes four years after a Louisville Courier-Journal investigation found widespread cheating on coal dust sampling. The newspaper reported that since testing started in 1972 many samples registered so little dust they must have been falsified. As a result, miners were breathing too much dust, leading to the death of hundreds of miners a year from black lung disease.

A year later, federal officials said the number of air quality tests with suspiciously low readings had dropped dramatically. But it’s unclear whether that progress has continued since 1999. MSHA coal mine inspectors issued an estimated 68,242 citations and orders in 2001, a 17 percent increase over the previous year.  
 
Another miner killed on the job
In a related development, coal miner George Shirley, 46, of Eighty-Four, Pennsylvania, was electrocuted and died at Consol’s Eighty-Four Mine. Shirley had been operating a ram car in the mine but then stopped the car and walked around to check something at its front, according to Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco.

A co-worker then saw Shirley’s mining hat fall off and saw him fall to the ground. Co-workers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation while bringing Shirley out of the mine but were unable to revive him.

Warco said he found no injuries on Shirley’s body and is continuing to investigate the cause of his death. According to a May 14 radio report, federal officials found the cause of death to be electrocution when Shirley came into contact with an overhead cable. He is listed as the 12th mining fatality in 2002. By this time in 2001 there had been eight mining deaths.
 
 
Related articles:
Coal companies’ greed contributes to devastating floods in West Virginia  
 
 
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