That statement opening our lead editorial a week ago has become more urgent as another three miners perished on the job over the last seven days. With the toll climbing to 18 men in just over a month this year, working people face a crisis that calls for immediate demands on the government and the bosses.

Miners facing one disaster after another are taking initiatives that deserve emulation and the support of the entire labor movement. At Sago, a nonunion mine where 12 people died underground in early January after being trapped for two days following an explosion, several workers designated the UMWA as their representative. Their action found widespread support, forcing the International Coal Group—which has boasted of running “union free” operations and being a model “low-cost producer”—to allow UMWA safety inspectors to enter the mine as part of the investigation into that disaster.

Facing outrage by working people at the bosses’ contempt for the miners’ safety, Joseph Manchin, the governor of West Virginia, announced that not only company personnel but miners must be involved in carrying out a thorough review of safety procedures in mining operations in that state and ensuring their enforcement during his “safety stand down.” Capitalist politicians like Manchin always wag their finger for a week or two after disasters and pledge new federal or state measures. Working people, however, can take advantage of any openings such calls may provide.

The current crisis is not focused only in West Virginia but extends across the United States and beyond. It’s time to demand from Washington that all coal mines be shut down for a thorough review of safety procedures.

We call on working people to support the UMWA’s demand that the bosses cooperate with union safety committees in all such inspections in unionized mines in West Virginia, and to back demands by any miners to extend such union-organized safety inspections in all operations—union and nonunion. Miners should receive full pay while off the job during such inspections.

At the same time, working people know they cannot rely on the Mine Safety and Health Administration or other agencies of local, state, or federal governments, all of which speak and act on behalf of the employing class. They know that miners like Shane Jacobson, who just died in Utah, are not killed by “freak accidents” but perish as a result of the unrelenting drive by the bosses to increase productivity in order to maximize profits.

As UMWA Region 4 director Bob Butero said, “If miners see safety problems, even in a nonunion mine, they are supposed to be able to report the issue without fear of retribution. Companies may not victimize the miner for doing so directly, but they’ll look for any other pretext to fire a miner who complains. With the union the workers have more protection to speak out and fight for safe working conditions.”

That applies not only to coal but any other mines, as well as every other industry. Support all efforts by miners to organize!
 
 
Related articles:
Boss contempt for safety kills coal miner in Utah
Worker dies after blowout of coal face underground
Two more miners die in W. Virginia
Governor calls for ‘Mine Safety Stand Down’
Int’l Coal Group forced to allow UMWA officials into W. Virginia mine for Sago disaster investigation
Canada potash miners survive underground fire
Unionists support labor defense case
Miners, other workers snap up the ‘Militant’
Company greed killed coal miners in Utah
21 years since Wilberg mine disaster; how Emery Mining Corp. tried to hide facts
Court dismisses Massey defamation suit  
 
 
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