Two Trapped Miners Found Dead

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFL-CIO weblog

Two Trapped Miners Found Dead

by Donna Jablonski, Apr 22, 2007

The Associated Press is reporting that the bodies of two mineworkers have been found buried deep in a western Maryland open-pit coal mine. The two men, one found in a backhoe and the other in a bulldozer, were trapped when a wall section collapse left them buried under at least 45 feet of debris.

AP says the collapse took place Tuesday at the Tri-Star Mining Inc. site near Barton, Md. The mine had no fatal injuries since at least 1995 and was not cited for any violations in an inspection that began March 5.

Mine safety gained new attention last year, when 47 coal miners were killed on the job—a 210 percent increase over the 22 deaths of coal miners in 2005. In response, Congress passed the MINER Act—the first new mine safety law in 30 years—but mine safety advocates consider it a good first step toward safer mines rather than a solution.

Next weekend, on April 28, workplace health and safety activists across the world will mark Workers Memorial Day, honoring the thousands of working men and women killed on the job each year and the millions more who are injured and made sick. In rallies, marches, vigils and memorial services, they’ll also call attention to the Bush administration’s failed record on job safety and recommit to the fight for safe jobs unions have been waging for generations.



Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/22/two-trapped-miners-found-dead/

[NNadir]

1. Thank you for paying attention to this matter.

[tabasco]

2. Oh no. I know a few W. Md. miners and they are really great guys.

Still a very dangerous job.

Sympathy to the families. :cry:

[MADem]

3. Ah, that delightful COAL! The only way to make these mines safe is to use robots.

It's ghastly work, and way too dangerous...

[acmavm]

5. You're right, the robots make it safe. They also put the coal miners out

of work.

What a damn dilemma.

[Occulus]

7. Sell individual, private stocks in the robots

Make the miners the owners of the robots. It might mitigate some of the economic damage.

[Thothmes]

8. Union coal miners

[MADem]

9. Well, someone has to RUN the robots, really--the work is complicated and specific enough

that putting a person on each robot, above ground, to move its appendages and make sure it doesn't run into the wrong stuff probably wouldn't be a bad idea--sorta like driving a backhoe, only remotely. And then, you need someone to program the robots, to oil and fix the robots, too.

So it could end up being a wash, pretty much, with slightly lower insurance costs because these guys wouldn't be dying left and right.

[Fierce]

4. Were they union?

I can't find anything saying they were.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. I doubt it

Maryland may be different but WV miners tend not to be union.

[midnight]

6. There is so much talk about keeping us safe from: terrorists; while

our jobs are sent over to other countries, our work environments unstable, but they consider this terrorism capitalism.