Since it went into effect July 12, Kentucky’s Office of Mine Safety and Licensing has used the new law to suspend the certification of seven coal miners. The legislation requires miners to pass a drug test to be certified, then subjects them to random testing.

The U.S. coal bosses have applauded the new law, which was backed by politicians from the bosses’ twin parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

Mark York, spokesman for the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, said of the law, “The goal is to make mining as safe as possible.” Former government mine safety official Tony Oppegard declared that miners “are threatening their livelihood by using drugs.” In other words, workers themselves are to blame for unsafe conditions in the mines!

That unsubstantiated allegation is typical of the state and federal mine safety agencies, which have a consistent record of being beholden to the coal companies. It echoes the smear against miners by coal giant Massey Energy, which in a February statement claimed that “the work ethic of the Eastern Kentucky worker has declined from where it once was” as seen in drug use and other problems.

What are the facts? On July 30 Jermey Heckler of West Virginia became the 37th U.S. coal miner killed on the job so far this year. In recent weeks, several Pennsylvania and West Virginia miners have been seriously injured at work. Like the 12 workers killed in January after a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, and like the five who died in a May 20 explosion in Harlan County, Kentucky, these workers are casualties of the coal bosses’ relentless productivity drive, which puts profits first at the expense of workers’ lives and limbs.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) is backing an August 19 memorial in Harlan, Kentucky, for the miners killed on the job in Harlan County over the past year. Unionists and other workers should support and participate in this event, which will be addressed by UMWA president Cecil Roberts. Relatives and co-workers of deceased miners are seeking to expose the truth about these deadly disasters and are demanding a real solution so miners do not continue to be killed.

In response to these demands, government officials and the big-business media have called for “tougher” mine safety laws. But new legislation will have no meaning unless workers organize UMWA locals at every mine. That is the only effective means to enforce safety and ensure that not a single miner dies on the job.

The starting point must be a movement of working people to organize the mines and to put into the hands of the miners themselves all decisions regarding job safety.
 
 
Related articles:
Coal bosses, gov’t in Kentucky use drug testing to blame miners for lack of job safety
Serious injuries increase along with deaths in mines
Kentucky, W. Virginia miners snap up ‘Militant’  
 
 
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