"The operator of the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia [Massey Energy Company] where an explosion killed 29 people failed to clear away combustible materials and put its employees at risk by forcing them to work in as much as four feet of water. The Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration deemed the incident "significant and substantial," a term that the agency defines to mean "reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness." Don Blankenship, the company's chief executive, cautioned against reading too much into the Upper Big Branch mine's history of violations, "Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process." (Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2010)
"The United Mine Workers tried to organize the workers at the Upper Big Branch Mine, the site of the recent fatal explosion, about three years ago. The first vote was a tie, the union lost the second election by 14 votes, and it withdrew its petition before a third vote was taken. "When we first began, we had over 70 percent of the people who signed cards," indicating interest in a union, he said. "Then Don Blankenship himself went into the mines and personally talked to the miners," Mr. Smith, a Union spokesman, said. "He was his own personal union-buster. It was very vicious, the first time in 60 years that a mine operator brought in strikebreakers, brought in armed guards." (Bloomberg News, April 9, 2010)
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What would have happened this April if two or three years ago, the UMW, with its unparalleled commitment to safe working conditions, had been freely able to organize the Upper Big Branch Mine?
What would have happened if Don Blankenship, arguably the most oppressive/aggressive/union-busting major company CEO in America today, didn't hold over the heads of his workers his 'view' that major life-threatening safety "violations" are simply "a normal part of the mining process"?
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When I was Chief Executive Officer of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) and its affiliated companies, before their merger into AT&T, we had very good relationships with our unions, the CWA and the Teamsters. Our large company was very successful, our union- and non-union employees shared fairly in the company's success, and, while I was in charge, we never fought to keep our employees unrepresented.
Anyone who says that unions are bad for business is using this contention as an excuse to cover up for poor management. And any CEO who is described as "his own personal union-buster" is simply saying that he doesn't believe that constructive partnership with his employees should ever be an objective.
Unions believe that the strength of America is its fundamental sense of fairness and that it is the workers of America and their middle-class families who define this nation, both economically and ethically. I know this firsthand because while my business career is now 39 years long, it was preceded by more than a decade of my own membership in four unions working alongside brothers and sisters like those who just perished in Montcoal.
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Not long ago, a columnist in the Financial Times wrote that "the Union agenda in the United States is anti-competitive and stridently protectionist, and consequently anti-growth." And of course if this line doesn't alone bring your breakfast back up for a re-look, then there are always the actions and statements of Don Blankenship.
The FT columnist is simply wrong, both intellectually and practically, and as the Montcoal tragedy just showed us, actual union-busting, of the sort practiced by Massey, can be fatally wrong -- and it is always morally reprehensible.
When unions strive to protect American workers and jobs and eliminate unfair trade practices, that is not being anti-growth and it is certainly not protectionism. It's just the opposite.
American workers are still the most productive in the world, and when they are able to compete on level playing fields, they and the companies they work with thrive -- and the nation prospers. And this is what our economy largely did, from the end of the Second World War until the early '80s, as a generally even balance existed among and between corporate America's responsibilities to its shareholders, employees, customers, communities and the nation.
But then the three plagues of 'trickle down economics,' excessive compensation, and unbridled and unfair globalization came together, and for thirty years 90 percent of workers in America have largely been standing still earnings-wise and millions of jobs have been shipped overseas. Average household income hasn't changed a bit for 10 years, and for the bottom 60 percent of wage earners it hasn't changed for more than 20 years.
American workers are now competing across the board against illegal foreign subsidies, currency manipulation, and shameful environmental practices that swamp the theory of comparative advantage. And here at home, every significant corporate action and related political decision now seems to be about protecting the interests of large corporations, both multinational and domestic, and of their senior managers, while there is ever-increasing in-attention to the interests of America's workers.
No worker should live without organizing protections any time. But when the percentage of unionized workers in the private sector is lower than at any point in the 20th century, we must declare that expanding union membership is one of our biggest signposts on the road to:
• re-growing our middle class from the bottom up,
• lessening income inequality, and
• making globalization the genuine opportunity it should be for all American workers.
When Franklin Roosevelt first took office in March of 1933, he immediately responded to the nation's fears -- and problems -- by enacting the National Industrial Recovery Act. The NIRA was comprised of a wide array of programs, but each program had two very simple objectives: reemploying the millions of jobless Americans, and protecting workers' rights. Two years later, the largely Republican-nominated Supreme Court struck down the NIRA, but rather than take it on the chin and abandon his core principles, FDR supported, and Congress passed, the National Labor Relations Act, known as the Wagner Act, which even more forcefully guaranteed workers the right to freely organize their own unions and to strike, boycott and picket their employers, all the while banning "unfair labor practices" of the sort which Don Blankenship seemingly eats for his own breakfast each morning.
In an important speech in July 2008 to the United Steelworkers that colored the remainder of his election efforts, Candidate Obama told America's workers, in the same way FDR did in 1932, that "he was running for President because he didn't want to wake up one day many years from now and see that we're still standing idly by while even more plants are shut down, and even more jobs are shipped abroad, and even more workers are denied the good benefits and decent wages they deserve."
Last week, President Obama demanded that the "owners responsible for conditions in the Upper Big Branch mine...be held accountable for decisions they made and preventive measures they failed to take, that Congress "strengthen enforcement of existing laws and close loopholes that permit companies to shirk their responsibilities," and that mine companies like Massey Energy "no longer use a strategy of endless litigation to evade their responsibilities."
However, the tragedy of Montcoal, West Virginia, which literally involved the lives and the livelihoods of American workers everywhere, has stunned our nation beyond any need for rhetoric.
We saw how President Obama won on health care -- it might not have been pretty and he fought for every last vote -- and in the process how America won.
Now, with the reprehensible conduct of Don Blankenship slapping us in the face each time a brave coal miner is laid to rest while paid-gun "corporate economists" from other major companies around the country practice their own cruel forms of 'union-busting,' President Obama must fight just as hard for the rights of America's workers. This means: (1) putting in place employee safety regulations and oversight that will truly protect courageous workers everywhere, starting at Massey; (2) systemically attacking real unemployment in the country, which is now nearly 20 percent; (3) following through with the promise he made in 2008 to "finally make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land"; and (4), as he just indicated he will, moving completely away from the laissez faire approach toward regulation of all sorts that characterized the George W. Bush Administration.
And when he's done these things, we will have rejected, once and for all, the hollowing out of the core of American society by self-interested multinational corporations and by the extremely wealthy.
Frankly, I thought we had strongly sent this message in November 2008, but if we have to do so again, so be it -- those men who passed away in Montcoal demand it, as must we in their memory.
Leo Hindery, Jr. is Chairman of the U.S. Economy/Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Currently an investor in media companies, he is the former CEO of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), Liberty Media and their successor AT&T Broadband. He also serves on the Board of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.
by Berry Craig
AFL-CIO
Apr 21, 2010
"...unions still must “mourn the dead, fight for the living.” That’s the unofficial motto of Workers Memorial Day, which will again be observed April 28. (I’m with UMWA President Cecil Roberts. I want to see Blankenship cuffed, zipped in an orange jump suit and made to do the perp walk.)
Unions have marked every April 28 as Workers Memorial Day since 1989. The date was chosen because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) became part of the U.S. Labor Department on April 28, 1971, and because of a similar April 28 commemoration in Canada, according to the AFL-CIO. Jeff Wiggins, president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, says..."
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04/21/were-still-mourning-the-dead-and-fighting-for-the-living/#more-28383
If you want to go after Blankenship as the worst management has to offer then terrific, be my guest. I find him to be corruptive, bullying, and with no regard to workers. Period. In my opinion if there is a king of what not to be, then he is it. However if you want to use him as an argument for unions then that is a different matter. Union management did bust the steel industry in this country, they did drive prices sky high, and were the absolute cause for runaway inflation. 100% medical and dental for everyone in the family, twelve week vacations, categorization of jobs, all good thing that were abused to the extreme. Unions damn near, no they DID ruin the rust belt. Smart companies still won't do business in PA, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and of course, West Virginia. So go after Blankenship, fine by me. But don't for a moment make all unions the good guy in this. There are still places in PA where there is no right to work employment. It's union or no hire or out the door. That's not right either..
Why advocate the primacy of property rights and believe that market forces make all things right? Many mirror the Southern position before the Civil War, that “our economic and property right are supreme to every other value and we should be able to have our slaves in the Western territories.” Would anyone understanding the impact of greed, monopolies and corruption on the “natural working of the market” spout such silliness?
“Violations are unfortunately a normal part of ….” Is that the thinking which made post-New Deal America? It certainly portrays life in America since Ronald Reagan; elected under the veneer of everybody's kind, old grandfather, busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union.
The dirty little secret few were willing to look at was that grandpa was molesting the kids. No, I'm not saying Reagan sexually abused anyone. It is a metaphor. "Like a wolf in sheep's clothing" he deceived many and has abused all of us. A generation later, we're paying dearly for dismantling the New Deal.
We have a problem; going to the heart and soul of a nation's consciousness when people laboring anywhere – in a mine, field, factory or office are demeaned. Replace the mantra of property rights being superior to any other concept in English Common Law and we might begin to have arrived as a species and as a society.
In my 40 years as an airline pilot I worked for union and non-union airlines. The safety and security differences between the two were like night and day. A non-union pilot can never refuse an assignment or an aircraft he or she finds unsafe! In a unionized airline environment the Captain has the authority to protect himself and his passengers without the fear of management reprisal.
For obvious reasons the big business and their conservative politician shills have always been deadly against unions, worker's rights and any collective bargaining movement in this country. Ironically, the majority of American workers consistently vote against their own best interest and self preservation due to lack of education, knowledge and even for following blind religious views!
One of the best books written on this subject is The Confessions of a Union Buster. A great insight into the levels of deception and greed of the big business and their operators.
Captain Ross "Rusty" Aimer (UAL Ret.)
CEO
Aviation Experts, LLC
San Clemente, CA
http://www.AvaitionExperts.com
Blankenship has other tactics to intimidate the people who do business with him as well. During the election of Supreme Court Justice Brett Benjamin, he sent out letters to businesses who depend on Massey to make a personal contribution to his campaign. If the business didn't, he followed up with a second letter. They made contributions even if they didn't want to because they were afraid they would be blacklisted.
I watched a great news tidbit about twitter pillow fights and even riots in Philidelphia. Seems that people were text messaging one another and arranging impromtu meetings in public places. Hundreds of people would show up, all within a few hours, and cause quite a ruckus. No meeting notices, no handbills. Quick and powerful.
I hope that Unions are able to capture some of this social technology and modernize their efforts to organize. A few pillow fight style text rallies would go a long way.
Come on, Unions! Evolve!
They don't get it.
We presently have union and non-union management-types coexisting within our rather sizable family. There was room for both in The United States prior to the Year 2000 and with some diligent effort and compromise there could be again.
My parents both belonged to unions and I remember several long strikes where for weeks at a time we had barely anything on our table. The community came together to donate food to striking families. They held fast to their principles.
Those communities nowadays are few and far between.
With this second major mine explosion and loss of life, it would seem clear that some owners of industrial work places clearly have shown a complete disregard for the lives of their workers yet some folks will continue to attack workers desire to return home after their shift and attack Unions. Despite the deaths of these workers, some still choose to attack unions yet not a word about the owners who clearly allowed unsafe conditions to exist that cost workers their lives.
Although Unions are far from perfect they have and do continue to protect the lives of their members and yet some clearly have a greater concern for their hatred of unions as oppossed to employers that put profits above maintaining safe opperations. These miners lives were basically sacrficed by this company, as they have been in other mining opperations yet some folks want to attack organizations who could play a role in reducing the danger and increasing the chances of workers being able to return home at the end of the day.
Perhaps, after these accidents, those workers who voted against the Union now might understand how their no vote contributed to conditions that killed co-workers and perhaps now this group of miners will take the steps to gain a union. It is now in the hands of these miners to take their lives into their own hands.
My mom and dad worked in factories.
All non-union, but they would get unscheduled raises right before any vote to unionize.
Without at least the threat of unions, pay would never go up.
I worked in the same factories.
People still got paid squat, but they didn't unionize because of propaganda like the above.
Median wages after inflation have declined since Reagan.
70% of the population is now poorer.
But what's important is business, and making more low-paying jobs?
Reaganomics is a failure, and people know it, except the richest 20%, ones who benefited from a system based on debt and inflated real estate prices. They're in denial, like the above post.
It ain't pretty.
The Montcoal tragedy occurred because existing state and federal regulations on mine safety were not followed and because the state and federal inspectors charged with enforcing those regulations failed to do their jobs. The simple, obvious fix is to start making sure that inspectors do their jobs and enforce regulations. In addition, the inspectors and their supervisors who failed to do their jobs in this case should be severely disciplined or fired.
I have no problem whatsoever with workers organizing a union, as long as they are allowed to vote on unionization in a secret ballot so that they're not subjected to pressure and intimidation. Some unions are thoroughly corrupt and cause a drop in quality and productivity when they get control of a work force. But some employers are corrupt too and treat their workers unfairly. The secret ballot is a crucial tool to protect workers from pressure and intimidation from corrupt unions and from corrupt employers.
And what was the one criterion that hadn't been met? That the mine have at least one "withdrawal order" issued by MSHA inspectors for serious and substantial mine safety violations. Upper Big Branch actually had **16** of them, but they were all pending appeals filed by Massey mine managers, so "technically" they didn't count until the appeals were adjudicated.
Mind you, the Upper Big Branch mine had at least 20 serious citations, it had two orders citing "imminent harm" to miner safety, had violation rates worse than the national average, and, as mentioned, met 9 of the 10 criteria to be placed on "pattern of violations" status. But federal officials sat on their hands because of a technicality based on an idiotic agency *policy.*
Massey’s Blankenship Fought Regulators, Town, Maid as Coal CEO
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-10/massey-s-blankenship-fought-regulators-town-maid-as-coal-ceo.html
Massey CEO Don Blankenship Spent Millions to Influence State Elections
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/west-virginia-mine-disaster-massey-energy-ceo-don/story?id=10311477
Now we see America without Unions. Disappearing middle class. Tent cities, people living in cars, 45 millions living in poverty, a completely gutted manufacturing base, home forclosures in the millions, 1% of the people own 95% of the wealth, 10, millions permanently unemployed, another 17 millions underemployed and the laughing stock of the industrialized world.
I don't think you have to be too smart to see which world the people of the USA prefered living in. Before or after Reagan. Before and after Unions.
For those who like the after Reagan world. Have you had your golden shower lately? Have you been trickled on lately?
Oops, sorry, that's 9/11.
Would that it were so that "Made In The United States of America" once again carried the weight that it did not so long ago.
But let's not forget that in the 30s auto union marchers were ridden down in the streets of Detroit by US cavalry.