On April 5th, Massey Energy had a "catastrophic and preventable mine explosion." The explosion killed 29 American coal miners. I say it was preventable because the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, has put production over mine safety in an effort to maximize the company's and his own profits.
It is common knowledge in the coal industry that the miners allowed to have and join unions enjoy much safer working conditions. This is because the unions don't just negotiate wages and benefits, but also check on safety conditions in the mines and mandate the companies maintain as safe a workplace as is possible.
But Blankenship is legendary for his union-busting skills. The mine in which the explosion killed the 29 miners was one of the mines that Blankenship had gone to great lengths to make sure it did not unionize. This may have provided shareholders with a few more dollars, but it allowed the mine operators to let the mine deteriorate into less than safe conditions for the workers.
And the company knew the mine was not safe. Michael Garland, spokesman for CtW Investment Group, said (about Massey Energy), "In 2009. . .the company had more violations than in any prior year, and was warned more than any other company. . ." Unless Blankenship hid the large number of safety violations from the company's Board of Directors, they had to know the mine was unsafe.
So what did Massey Energy do? In spite of the record number of safety violations, they gave Don Blankenship more than a $2 million bonus "for exceeding goals on mine safety." Those must have been some pretty low goals if they could be achieved with a record number of violations!
It makes me wonder if the company cares at all about the lives of the miners.
They didn't say what the goals were. They could have been to minimized costs associated with mine safety.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - it only said "safety goals", and could easily have meant cutting the funds spent on safety.
ReplyDelete