Crandall Canyon Mother: ‘Hard to Have Hope When You Have Your Heart Broken’

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/10/03/crandall-canyon-mother-hard-to-have-hope-when-you-have-your-heart-broken/

by Mike Hall, Oct 3, 2007

With her grandson Gage on her lap and a photo of her son Brandon—one of six coal miners killed Aug. 6 at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah—in front of her, Shelia Phillips told the House Education and Labor Committee this morning that they were there because:

We want to make the mines safer so this doesn’t happen to anyone else. It’s hard to have hope when you have your heart broken every day watching your grandson grow up without a dad.

Phillips and several other family members—including the wife of one of the three rescue workers killed Aug. 16—spoke out against the treatment they received from mine co-owner Robert Murray following the disaster; the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) approval of a mining plan that many experts believe played a major role in the mine collapse that trapped the six. They also said they believed if Crandall Canyon had been a union mine, the disaster may not have happened.

Steve Allred has spent nearly 30 years digging coal in union mines. His brother Kerry was killed at Crandall Canyon. Allred told the lawmakers:

At Crandall Canyon, had the mine owner been held accountable by the United Mine Workers (UMWA) and MSHA, my brother would not have died. If the UMWA had been there, those pillars would not have come down and the miners who were concerned about the mountain coming down on top of them, they would have had a voice.

MSHA approved a mining plan that allowed Murray Energy Corp. to pull down the pillars of coal that the mine’s previous owners had left because of safety concerns and to support the mine roof. The process is called retreat mining and most safety experts believe it is more dangerous than other mining methods. UMWA President Cecil Roberts told the committee:

It is deeply distressing that Murray Energy sought to mine the barrier pillars supporting the mountain above the mine. That plan should never have been submitted. Further, and perhaps more importantly, MSHA should never have approved any such request.

It is high time for mine operators and MSHA to realize that miners’ lives, not the mining product, is the most valuable resource of the mining industry. Only when they come to this conclusion will the needless loss of life in our nation’s coalfields end.


FULL story at link.

[ismnotwasm]

1. What a sad headline

And what disgusting story about the lack of accountablity.