Miners in the United States

Tennessee plant where five workers died found rife with dangers

December 15, 2011

After a six month-long investigation, the federal Chemical Safety Board reported that uncontrolled hazards and an absence of safety measures were behind a series of fatal fires at a Gallatin, Tennessee, metal plant earlier this year. Five workers have been killed and three others injured at the Hoeganaes Corp. plant since late January. The accidents account for all but one of the six dust-related fatalities across the country in 2011.

Hoeganaes is a subsidiary of British-based multinational firm GKN, and has other plants in Germany, China, and Romania. GKN has annual revenues upwards of $7 billion.

The Tennessee plant is located about 30 miles northeast of Nashville, and employs 175 workers. Hoeganaes melts scrap metal for customer repurposing. The molten iron is sprayed and cooled into a powder, processed in furnaces with hydrogen, and then crushed and milled into a fine powder. The plant is a significant supplier to regional auto manufacturers.

The CSB notes that it has seen significant increases in production since it came online in 1980. According to the company’s web site, since then, the Gallatin plant’s capacity has risen from 45,000 tons and three grades of metal powder, to “in excess of 300,000 tons and…more than 20 base grades.”

Federal investigation finds Upper Big Branch mine disaster “entirely preventable”

December 12, 2011

The US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) released its final report last Tuesday on the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine explosion. The federal agency concluded that the April 5, 2010 blast, which killed 29 West Virginia miners was “entirely preventable.”

“Massey routinely ignored obvious safety hazards and let conditions develop that allowed a small methane ignition to propagate into a massive coal dust explosion,” says the report. “The tragic deaths of 29 miners and serious injuries to two others at Upper Big Branch were entirely preventable.”

MSHA issued Massey and UBB operator Performance Coal Co. 369 violations—12 of which investigators say contributed directly to the explosion—and levied $10.8 million in fines. Of the 12 contributing violations, nine were designated “flagrant”—the most serious violations the agency can issue. Two contributing violations were also issued to David Stanley Consulting, LLC, a contractor involved in conducting safety examinations at the mine.

The culmination of an 18-month investigation, at the cost of more than $5 million, MSHA conducted 310 formal interviews—transcripts for 20 of which are still being withheld—and reviewed some 88,000 pages of documentary evidence.

Justice Department drops criminal charges against Massey for deaths of 29 miners

December 8, 2011

The Obama administration’s Justice Department announced Tuesday that it would not press any criminal charges against Massey Energy, or its new owner, Alpha Natural Resources, arising from the death of twenty-nine coal miners at the Upper Big Branch mine in April 2010.

In exchange for not pursuing criminal charges against the companies, Alpha Natural Resources has agreed to pay $209 million in fines, restorations to the families, and safety improvements to its mines over the next two years.

No charges were brought against any individual company official for their role in the disaster, although the Justice Department says that those may still come.

Moreover, no charges were announced against any government official in the Mine Safety and Health Administration, MSHA, who were responsible for ensuring that Massey followed the safety laws.

The $209 million includes $46.5 million to be used to pay $1.5 million to each of the families of the twenty-nine miners killed in the explosion and the two injured miners. $35 million will be used to pay civil fines outstanding against all Massey mines, including fines leveled as a result of the disaster. The remaining $128 million will go to making safety improvements to all its mines.

Sixth Kentucky coal miner killed

November 18, 2011

Coal miner David J. Middleton, of Baxter, Kentucky, died November 14, from injuries he suffered in a mining accident nearly two weeks earlier. Middleton is the 21st US coal miner to be killed so far this year in on-the-job accidents. Another 13 metal miners have also been killed.

Middleton, 28, was working at the Mill Branch surface mine run by Nally & Hamilton Enterprises, in Harlan County. On November 2, he was critically injured when the bulldozer he was operating overturned and rolled 250 feet to the bottom of the slope. He was found unconscious by co-workers and taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Middleton had been a bulldozer operator at the pit for five years.

Middleton is the sixth coal miner to be killed in Kentucky this year. In the last four days of October, four miners, two coal miners and two metal miners were killed in multiple accidents. Over the span of little more than a month, six miners in the Kentucky-West Virginia coalfields have been killed (see “Another Kentucky coal miner killed“).

Reflecting an indifference to the steady stream of accidents over the past two months, next to nothing was reported on the fatality in the press, and regulatory agencies have been quiet.

Another Kentucky coal miner killed

November 9, 2011

A miner was killed in an equipment accident Monday morning at a small underground coal mine in southeastern Kentucky. The accident brings to 20 the number of coal miners killed on the job in the US this year, with five in the past month alone.

Forty-seven-year-old Jerry Britton, of nearby Pound, Virginia, was working as a mine foreman at the Hubble Mining Company LLC’s No. 9 mine in Letcher County, Kentucky. At 9:40 a.m., Hubble reported that Britton had been struck by a personnel carrier.

Investigators from the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing (OMSL) said the victim was transported to Whitesburg Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has yet to issue a preliminary report on the accident.

Britton’s death is the third mining fatality in ten days’ time in the state. On October 28, two miners were crushed in a highwall collapse at the Equality Boot surface mine. That accident followed by less than a week the death of a West Virginia miner in an equipment accident and the mine operator’s delayed call to emergency responders. The string of fatalities highlight once again the impunity with which the coal industry operates and the lack of enforcement by state and federal agencies.

United Mine Workers issues findings on Upper Big Branch mine disaster

November 4, 2011

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) has branded last year’s disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine (UBB) “Industrial Homicide” in a 154-page report released October 25. The UMWA’s conclusions largely echo those in two previous reports issued by the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and the independent team led by former MSHA chief Davitt McAteer.

The union’s findings are consistent with the current working theory that a spark produced from the worn blade of a longwall machine ignited a small amount of methane. Accumulated coal dust then allowed a massive explosion to travel more than seven miles through the underground mine, killing 29 miners. From the lack of machinery maintenance to the inoperable water sprayers, the inadequate ventilation and lack of rock dusting, the UMWA report states that conditions demonstrated “a culture that demanded production at any cost and … a callous disregard for the health and safety of the miners employed at the operation.”

The report rejected as “self-serving” the claim advanced by Massey Energy that the disaster was the result of a massive inundation of natural gas—in other words, that it was an “act of God.” The union’s investigation concluded, “there was no evidence to support this theory whatsoever.”

Security official convicted of obstructing probe into West Virginia mine disaster

November 1, 2011

The security chief at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine, where 29 miners were killed in an explosion last April, has been convicted for participating in a cover-up of longstanding safety problems in the mine. On October 26, Hughie Stover was found guilty of lying to federal investigators and ordering the destruction of boxes of company records.

Stover’s conviction is only the second criminal prosecution of Massey officials involved in the disaster. In September, Thomas Harrah, a former UBB miner pled guilty to forging his foreman’s papers and was sentenced to 9 months in jail. Stover remains free on bail as he awaits a February sentencing hearing.

No high level officials have been prosecuted for the deadliest coal mine disaster in four decades.

At the heart of Stover’s conviction was the finding that he lied to an FBI agent and a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspector about ordering the destruction of thousands of security documents from the UBB mine. Stover also falsely told them Massey did not have a policy of alerting mine operators and foreman when safety inspectors showed up.

Two Kentucky miners killed in wall collapse

November 1, 2011

Two miners were killed and two others were injured in a wall collapse at a western Kentucky surface mine early Friday morning. So far this year, 19 coal miners have died on the job in the US, most in the states of Kentucky and neighboring West Virginia. Four miners have been killed in a string of accidents in the past month.

Samuel Lindsey and Darrel Winstead were driving a truck near a highwall at the Equality Boot surface mine near Centertown, Kentucky, when a huge slab of the rock face suddenly collapsed on them. The accident occurred around 6:30 a.m.

Lindsey, 23, of Mortons Gap, and Winstead, 47, of Madisonville, were initially reported trapped under the rubble. When their bodies were recovered at 1:15 p.m. the Ohio County coroner said it appeared the men were killed instantly in the collapse. The two were blasters who worked as contractors for Mine Equipment and Mill Supply Company. At least two other miners were hospitalized after the accident.

Two US coal miners killed

October 21, 2011

A West Virginia miner was killed at a Consol Energy mine in Marshall County Monday night. Charles McIntire, a 62-year-old coal miner at the Shoemaker Mine on the Ohio River near Moundsville, West Virginia died after being struck by a piece of equipment he was operating.

McIntire dismounted a loading machine he was driving after it failed to coast across a “jump,” the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration stated in its initial report. A jump is an area where a 50-foot break in the trolley wire is left in order for vehicles to cross. When McIntire attempted to use a jumper cable to re-energize the loader, it suddenly moved forward, cutting off his leg.

According to Marshall County Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Hart, the first calls reporting a leg injury were not placed to the Marshall County 911 center. Instead, mine officials made calls directly to STAT Medevac and Tri-State EMS. When the medical helicopter and ambulance arrived, however, they found that additional help was needed, such as local firefighters to set up the landing zone.

Low-level Massey employee convicted in Upper Big Branch mine investigation

October 6, 2011

A former Massey employee has been convicted and sentenced to 10 months in prison for falsifying mine safety records and lying to federal investigators. The 46-year-old coal miner, Thomas Harrah, conducted at least 228 key safety examinations at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine between January 2008 and August 2009 under a falsified foreman’s license.

Harrah’s conviction is the first produced by investigators looking into the massive explosion on April 5, 2010 that took the lives of 29 miners in Raleigh County, West Virginia. However, investigators admit that Harrah had nothing to do with the explosion, having left the Massey-owned mine some eight months before the tragedy.

Harrah is only the second person to face charges from the UBB investigation, which the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says has involved 300 witnesses, 84,000 pages of documents, 23,000 photographs, nearly 1,000 different maps, and over 1,000 pieces of physical evidence.