Two coal miners died today in West Virginia, buried alive when the mine they were working in collapsed, reports the Associated Press. Last year, 47 miners died in mining accidents -- the highest death toll, says the AP, since 1995. As if 1995 was ancient history. The fact is that miners -- and workers in hundreds of other dangerous jobs -- die for two reasons, and both are only hinted at in this story...
The first is lax regulation by a government that gets its campaign funds from companies: The mine in which two men died today was cited 65 times by the ironically-named "Mine Safety and Health Administration." 65 times! Sounds like the Feds are breathing down these corporate crooks' necks, right? What was the penalty for this kind of sloppy operation. "Proposed penalties of $5,000." Five thousand bucks? Proposed? That'll stop em in their tracks.
So -- effective penalties and enforcement are missing. What else is missing, besides two miners who won't be going home to their families tonight? A union to fight for the miners.
Well, that's not exactly true -- there's the United Mine Workers. I think. Maybe these guys weren't allowed to be in a union. I wouldn't know from this article -- AP saw fit only to quote representatives of the corporation, who helpfully pointed out that many miners were NOT killed today. So, there's that.
The last thing I want to do is pick on the UMW. What I'm mad about is the press that takes the company's word, that doesn't bother to call the union, and all the liberals -- yes, the liberals -- who've made labor such a low priority that, really, there's no reason for the AP to call the union. Organized labor just doesn't have that much muscle anymore.
Don't get me wrong -- the conservatives who waged open war on labor are much more to blame. But that's old news. Since 1995 -- the last year the number of mining dead reached such a toll as this past year -- we've seen the mainstreaming of phony "free trade" and the baloney of management/labor "cooperation," and the worst part of it is that too often ostensibly liberal politicians have often been leading these crusades against the rights and safety of working people. "Working people" -- that's almost all of us. I've seen too many Kossacks write of unions as if they're a "special interest," not relevant to the "middle class." I'm middle class, I have a decent job, and I sure wish I could join a union so I wouldn't have to worry about it every time the whims of management change direction.
But hell, the worst injury I face is carpal tunnel syndrom. Not so bad compared to being buried alive in a tunnel. Next time some free trader comes round Kos preaching "compromise" and promising "centrism" and ignoring the dead of laissez-faire capitalism's war on the homefront, let's encourage him/her to imagine, for a moment, the feeling of being buried alive.
End of rant.