Vol. 71/No. 42      November 12, 2007

Six miners were trapped in the disaster and their bodies never recovered. During the efforts to rescue the trapped miners, three more people were killed and six were injured. The day before the October 22 hearing, César Sánchez, whose brother Manuel was killed at Crandall Canyon, spoke to the Militant about the hearings that have been held in Utah and in the U.S. Congress.

“My opinion is that these investigations are pretty poor,” Sánchez said. “I asked questions in these hearings that have never been answered. For instance, was there a mantrip [vehicle] for the workers to escape in? And why haven’t the workers who did escape from the mine when it collapsed been interviewed?”

The latest Utah safety commission hearing did not answer these questions, and posed few other questions. Instead, it focused on testimony by representatives of state agencies.

Among those testifying was Thomas Faddies, a former mine manager representing Utah’s School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which manages state lands. In a moment of candor, trying to argue that the mine bosses want safety, he stated, “You can’t accept accidents in mining. Frankly, they’re too expensive. You don’t want to spend time training new employees.”

Among the eight commission members are David Litvin, president of the Utah Mining Association, which represents major mining companies in the state; and Michael Dmitrich, a state senator who does consulting work for mining companies.

Another commission member, Joseph Piccolo, is the mayor of Price, Utah. He told the Salt Lake Tribune October 21, “By its nature, the industry is dangerous. But it’s certainly not unsafe, in my opinion.”

The one union member on the commission is Dennis O’Dell, United Mine Workers of America safety director.

Some working people in the area have pointed to the difference a union can make. “We need the young people today to learn the lessons of the past and support the union,” said Frances Anderson in an interview.

Anderson, who works in Price, helped organize fundraising for families of the miners who died at Crandall Canyon. Her father died in the mines years ago. She said she remembers having stood proudly on the union picket line with other women in support of their husbands and other miners.

César Sánchez expressed a similar view. “If workers want any kind of protection, they have to get the union hands in the mines,” he said.

Sánchez, who has worked in several nonunion mines in the Price area, said that the last mine he worked in, the Bridger Mine in Wyoming, was union, and because of that it had better safety and other conditions.

“At Crandall Canyon it was profits over safety, and I see the company and the government responsible,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Randolph County, West Virginia, coal miner Howard Harris was killed October 20 when he got caught in a conveyor belt at the Pleasant Hill mine, owned by Carter Roag Coal Co. Another West Virginia miner died at Arch Coal’s Mountaineer II mine on September 26.

This brings to 26 the number of miners killed in the United States this year.  
 
 
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