Dirty Work

Most rational people will agree that unions are unnecessary in our enlightened age. Antiquated anachronisms. Who doesn't believe that business has anything less than the best interest of its workers at heart? After all this ain't Upton Sinclair's jungle.  If you don't like what a man is offering, then by god, go find another job. Unless of course, you live in a Massey company town like Montcoal, West Virginia, and there is no other job.

Don Blankenship runs a pretty tight ship at Massey Energy. As of January 31st of this year Massey was working 56 mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. A powerful man, who sits as a director on the United States Chamber of Commerce, he was proud not to have any United Mine Workers representation at any of his mines, including the Upper Big Branch. Fired all the union help in 2004. Courts found against him way back when but the case is still out on appeal.

There have always been problems at the Upper Big Branch. Last year two supervisors were let go for complaining about an unsafe conveyor belt system at the mine. I guess if you wanted to keep your job you kept your mouth shut. The mine had over $900,000 dollars in fines last year but Blankenship just figured it was the cost of doing business. Workers had long complained of inadequate ventilation in the mine, anonymously of course. Their cries went unheeded. Coincidentally, the day of the explosion, Massey was fined for not maintaining adequate escape routes and for improper electrical splicing at Upper Big Branch. Massey is appealing more than $250,000 of the largest fines, among them one in January for ventilation systems that are supposed to prevent the buildup of methane gas and coal dust that can cause explosions.

Under a 2006 federal law, coal miners are required to carry special g.p.s. tracking devices in case of emergencies. But they were never used in this mine. There was a special hot line in the mine that went directly to "Mr. B" so that he could call when it looked like things might be slowing down.

Two miners died at a fire at Massey's Melville mine in 2006. In 2008, Massey’s Aracoma Coal unit agreed to plead guilty to nine federal criminal counts of willful violation of mandatory safety standards and one count of making a false statement in connection with the fire. Aracoma also agreed to pay a $2.5 million criminal penalty.

The government report said that Aracoma’s employees removed ventilation controls, called stoppings, while installing electrical equipment. This let smoke from the fire into the miners’ primary escape route, the U.S. said. Aracoma said a foreman also falsified records on escape drills.

Don Blankenship, defends the mine's safety record, arguing that violations "are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process." Now 25 miners are dead and four are still missing. They tried to drill down and reach them today but the highly toxic carbon monoxide levels are 300 times greater than the levels deemed safe.  Blankenship's reach is long in coal country. He spent millions of dollars to remove a State Supreme Court Justice named Warren McGraw who had ruled in favor of mine workers.  He bullied the governor and altered property lines to cover up silos he had built outside of permitted areas. Massey is allegedly responsible for releasing over 460 million gallons of highly toxic coal sludge into the environment and our waterways. Much of their wrongdoing occurred while the Bush administration chose to look the other way.

He has threatened and bullied both journalists and union organizers. I first heard about him in 2004. His manipulations in a judicial election started a legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court. He made  more than $3 million in campaign donations to elect Brent Benjamin to the West Virginia State Supreme Court. After Benjamin won the 2004 election, he ruled in favor of Massey and throw out a $50 million jury verdict against the company. The funny thing was, that Blankenship was photographed taking a vacation on the French Riviera with the state's chief justice, Elliott "Spike" Maynard, who was at the time considering the  case. When a news reporter confronted Blankenship about his travel arrangements, he said that if he took pictures of him, he was liable to get shot. You don't mess with the guy who runs the only game in town.

Blankenship was a local boy who came up from nothing and now rides around in a Bentley. He likes to use his twitter account to broadcast his conservative views. Here's betting that he sails right through this one. Clean as a whistle. Just the cost of doing business.