Please read THIS LINK.
If you don’t read anything else in this post please read the New York Times article. When I read it I thought… if this article is true why wasn’t something being done to make the necessary changes to protect these miners. It seems Massey Energy treated these employees as expendable resources. Anytime there is a tragedy someone always knows why. I find it difficult to believe that the elected officials in West Virginia were not aware of Massey Energy’s tactics in handling the mining inspectors. Who in West Virginia is willing to fight for the safety of the miners? In a state as small as West Virginia people had to know about the problems. Unfortunately, no one did anything to address them. How did Massey Energy’s safety record go unnoticed by West Virginia’s two U.S. Senators—Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller? The workers needed their jobs and were not in a position to take on their Management. Who in the state had the power to do something about it? Who could have fought for these miners and their families—and will fight in the future?
It makes me sick to think that people in our country are forced to work in an unsafe environment and feel they have little recourse if they want to keep their jobs.
