Vol. 71/No. 35      September 24, 2007

The Senate hearings are one of what will likely be at least five different investigations in the coming months.

Two months before the cave-in, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) approved a plan submitted by mine owner Murray Energy Corp. to remove not only pillars of coal, but also large panels of coal called “barriers.” Barriers support the weight of the mountain above after most of the coal has been extracted.

Before questioning from U.S. senators, MSHA head Richard Stickler declined to defend the mining plan. Stickler said he would “have to see the result of the accident investigative team” before drawing any conclusions on whether or not MSHA should have approved the plan.

“The mining plan should never have been approved,” Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), told the congressional committee. “In essence the only coal remaining in the mine was in the barriers and pillars necessary to support the roof of the mine’s main entries.”

In his testimony, the union president said, “Murray Energy was extracting that very coal, using the pillar extraction method, at the time of the catastrophic collapse.”

Robert Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., did not attend the hearings. Arlen Specter, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, suggested that the committee might issue a subpoena to force him to testify.

Another ongoing investigation, which has drawn criticism from the UMWA and others, is being carried out by MSHA.

MSHA’s investigation is headed by Richard Gates, who oversaw the investigation into the Jan. 2, 2006, explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia that killed 12.

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Mike Gorrell wrote September 4 that MSHA internal reviews “of two fatal mine accidents in a three-week span last year in West Virginia … revealed numerous shortcomings in how the agency enforced mine safety laws.”

U.S. labor secretary Elaine Chao has appointed an “independent” panel, headed by former MSHA officials, to investigate the findings of the Gates-led investigation. The Charleston Gazette reported that this “independent study would take the place of MSHA’s traditional internal review process.”

Chao’s move is designed to ward off criticism of MSHA and reflects growing concern by working people that MSHA investigations have little or no impact on mine safety.

“After the Sago mine disaster there was a big investigation and promises of improvement, but all we have is more dead miners,” said Mack Isaacson, a roof bolter at the Horizon mine near Helper, Utah, in a recent interview with the Militant.

Seventy-one miners have been killed in the United States since the Sago disaster. The figure includes the six men trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine, whom MSHA added to their 2007 fatality list over Labor Day weekend. With nine fatalities so far this year, Utah has the highest number of mining deaths of any state in the country.
 
 
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Miner killed on the job in West Virginia
Scotland plastics factory bosses get slap on wrist for fatal 2004 explosion  
 
 
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