There is a strange similarity in two recent national news stories that on the surface don't seem similar at all.
The first story is the ongoing tragedy in a West Virginia coal mine. The second deals with how large American companies are dealing with unemployment claims. Each instance is a battle between corporate and middle America. In each case corporate America is using every means it controls against the interests of current or former employees.
The most costly battle has taken place at the Upper Big Branch South mine in Montcoal West, VA. Hit with approximately 1300 safety violations in the last six years, the Big Branch owners fought every fine and significantly fought all efforts that would have resulted in necessary safety repairs or in closing the mine. After all, big coal is big money.
The President of Massey Energy, which owns Big Branch, made $11 million in 2008.
Miners working overtime could earn up to $70,000 a year. And despite what they knew to be severe safety problems, they stayed in the mines. That was where they could make the most money for their families.
Dept. of Labor statistics show that the Big Branch mine has 11.6 times the national average of substantial violations, 3.6 times the national rate in ventilation control violations and 2.4 times the number of ventilation problems. Early speculation is that ventilation problems caused a build up of methane gas, which resulted in the mine explosion.
The CEO of Massey is Don Blankenship, a strong opponent of increased mine regulation. All of Massey's mines are non-union. Blankenship has personally donated millions to anti-regulation office seekers.
Big Branch now has 29 dead, bringing to 75 the total number of West Virginia miners killed in the last five years.
Another recent story by New York Times-award winning reporter Jason DeParle told how a little known company, the Talx Corporation, has in eight years come to "dominate a thriving industry: helping employers process and fight unemployment claims." The employers are not small businesses but largely Fortune 500 companies, like Wal-Mart, Aetna, Home Depot and other business giants.
The Talx Company was in total obscurity eight years ago. It now processes 30 percent of the nation's unemployment claims. It uses a variety of tactics such as failing to respond to legal notices and lawsuits; and it has been fined for what a Connecticut official said was "frivolous motions" and "unnecessary delay." A Massachusetts Judge dismissed a Talx lawsuit, saying: "the court will not be party to a fraud."
Talx does what Massey does. It takes advantage of the legal process system to delay actions that the companies should take but that would cost them profits. Do these two stories, Talx and Massey Energy, lead to any natural conclusions? By themselves they may not. They may be considered aberrations of relationships between corporate and middle America.
But they are not unique.
Health insurance reform was prompted in large part by an insurance industry that obviously put the enrichment of executives above service to the insured. And of course, middle America has yet to recover from the nation's economic crisis. Sixteen million Americans are jobless. Millions have lost their homes. But the bank executives whose wild speculations caused the crisis are having record profits and receiving bonuses in the millions.
Is it too much to say that corporate America is engaged in an undeclared class war with middle America? I believe not. The search for massive wealth for the few continues to be done at the expense of the well-being -- and safety -- of the many. It must be a national priority to reverse this trend before American ideals of equal opportunity are destroyed.