China: dozens of miners killed in three mine explosions

At least 77 coal miners were killed in gas explosions at three mines in northern China November 25-26, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

All 24 miners working in the shaft in the Luweitan Coal Mine in Linfen, Shanxi province, were killed after an accumulation of gas there ignited during a power outage, according to Mining Journal, published in the United Kingdom.

The day before, gas explosions in the Yuanhua Coal Mine in Jixi, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, killed 21 miners, leaving six workers missing. The same day, a blast at a privately owned mine in Fuyuan, Yunnan province, killed 32 workers and injured 28.

Nearly 6,000 coal miners died on the job in 2005, and the death toll for the first 10 months of 2006 was 3,726, as the Chinese government continued expanding coal production.

On November 29 a court jailed two mine managers for negligence in a 2004 gas explosion that killed 166 miners at the Chenjiasan mine in central China. They were given jail terms of five to five-and-a-half years. The same day an appeals court upheld jail sentences of three to six years for five mine managers and technicians held responsible in a gas blast that killed 83 coal miners in 2005.

Three weeks before the latest explosions, four journalists who worked for the Beijing-based magazine Guancha Zhoukan were arrested in Linfen, Shanxi, for conducting “illegal interviews” about the Luweitan mine, according to the Hong Kong paper South China Morning Post.

Meanwhile, in Shanxi, four Communist Party officials lost their party seniority after 65 people died in three mine accidents.

—Brian Williams

New Jersey state workers rally against health, pension cuts

Thousands of New Jersey state employees held rallies November 30 against proposals before the state legislature to cut public workers’ retirement and health benefits. The lunchtime demonstrations, organized by the Communications Workers of America, took place at dozens of state office buildings across New Jersey. In Trenton, more than 200 workers took to the streets at three state office buildings, the Star-Ledger reported.

The unionists were protesting recommendations from a legislative committee that would raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 years, add co-payments for health insurance, and roll back pension benefits by about 9 percent for new employees. Capitalist politicians have presented these cutbacks as part of a plan necessary for reducing property taxes. Unions are organizing a larger statewide protest December 11 in Trenton.

—Brian Williams

Engineers union members picket port of Los Angeles

Members of the Engineers and Architects Association (EAA) picketed the port of Los Angeles November 29-30, slowing work at two shipping terminals. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa immediately asked the city attorney’s office to seek a temporary restraining order to block the strike action. Los Angeles Superior Court judge David Yaffe rejected this request, however.

The unionists are demanding a 15 percent pay raise in a new five-year contract. Teamster truck drivers refused to cross the EAA’s two-day picket line, preventing a Norwegian Star cruise ship from stocking up on provisions. Port pilots honored the union’s pickets as well, refusing to bring shipments into certain terminals. Protest picket actions will continue at various unannounced locations until this dispute is settled, said EAA president Bob Aquino.

—Brian Williams
 
 
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