Reply #9: I'd like to see that fucking asshole do time. I live in the county where the accident happened.

[Kitty Herder]

I have two uncles and a cousin who worked for Murray; one uncle worked at Crandall Canyon. Fortunately, he wasn't there at the time of the collapse.

Many people around here don't like to say anything critical of Murray Energy because our local economy is dependent on coal mines and when mines close, even death-trap mines, people lose jobs. Some people even the blame the media for the closing of the West Ridge and Tower mines because they think that if the media hadn't made such a big deal over the accident, no one would have noticed the safety conditions of the those other mines. It's amazing what people will put up with to protect their jobs, but it's also understandable. Most miners don't have skills that they can transfer to another job and they have to keep working to keep food on the table.

The miners themselves seldom blow the whistle on unsafe mining conditions. Their livelihoods are on the line. So it is up to MSHA to be absolutely diligent in ensuring that mines are as safe as they can be. People like Robert Murry certainly won't regulate themselves, despite what the no-regulation, free-market types would have us believe. We, the public, must insist on stringent safety regulations of all industries, and especially the extremely dangerous ones like mining. We have to hold criminals like Murray accountable. This little fine isn't enough.

On a side note: I was recently talking to my cousin, who was one of those who took Murray up on the offer of a job in Illinois at another mine after the closures here. He's now back home and working for different mining company. He was one of those who blamed the media for the closing of the other mines. (Much as I love him, I have to admit that he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.) Now that he's working for someone else, he tells how horrible Murray Energy was and how different things are where he works now. One thing struck me as a remarkably petty instance of corporate greed. My cousin said of his new employer, "Why, they even give us paid lunch breaks and they have a microwave in the break room so we can cook our food." What kind of assholes won't even provide their workers with a microwave? That's so damned petty. I know that's a tiny thing compared to the safety violations that killed nine miners, but it really struck me as typical of Murray's lack of concern for the miners who put their lives on the line to enrich him.

Edited to add: Another thing that I think is vital is providing miners who have been put out of work because their mines closed with job training or early retirement, depending on their age. Our local mines are running out of coal, and so many of them will be closing. It's when they start to run low that the mining companies do dangerous things like retreat mining to eke out what's left.