Blacksville No. 2 is a longwall mine owned by Consol Coal Co., the largest U.S. underground coal company. The coal giant is notorious for hiring nonunion contract miners at its mines.

"We have good relations with our employees," said BGS vice president Arnold Graybeal before the recent fatality. "We are very safety conscious and have an excellent safety record."

Recently, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) won union recognition for another contractor, Webnic Construction Services, which has been working at Blacksville No. 2. The union is pursuing unionization of BGS, according to a UMWA press release. The union victory at Consol is an important step forward for the union, one that was noticed with a certain level of anxiety in the big business press.

According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, more than 181 mine contract workers have been killed while working on mine property between 1990 and 1998, and half of those deaths were in West Virginia.

The recent death was not the first mine contractor killed at Blacksville. In 1992, three miners were killed in an explosion while closing a shaft at Blacksville No. 1. A Consol engineer was also killed in the blast, and two others were injured.

In response to this situation, the UMWA is making an effort to organize contract miners into the union. Many of these miners are laid-off union miners and would jump at the chance to join the union.

There were two additional fatal coal mining accidents reported last week. A 36-year-old shuttle car operator was crushed to death August 14 by another shuttle car at Dakota Mining in Van, West Virginia.

On August 15, an underground miner was killed at Manalapan Mining Co., Mine No. 16 in Kentucky. So far this year 22 coal miners have been killed nationwide. Eight coal miners have been killed in Kentucky and five in West Virginia.

Frank Forrestal is a member of United Mine Workers of America Local 1248 in Pennsylvania.