This is the one-year anniversary of a massive explosion that ripped through the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, killing 29 miners and injuring 2 others. The explosion occurred at 3:27 PM as crews were beginning to exit the mine at the end of their shift. Here are their pictures:
Let me give you a few reasons to take a few minutes to remember these men.
These men died doing their job. They did nothing to endanger themselves or others beyond showing up for work. They share none of the blame but paid the highest possible price. Contrary to reports that all were killed instantly, at least 8 survived the blast but died before rescuers could reach them.
They died working for Massey Energy, a company with a long history of safety violations. The company chose to contest rather than fix ventilation and dust citations at this mine before the explosion. Company officials further trivialized the disaster by writing it off as just an act of nature. If coal seams did not have high levels of methane and coal dust was not explosive, none of this would have happened.
These miners had no advocates. They had each other's back, but no one else was looking out for them. Thanks to the union-busting efforts of Massey Energy, this was strictly a non-union shop. The company threatened or fired miners who reported safety violations. State regulation has not improved since the Sago disaster in 2006. Federal mine inspectors saw problems but did not stop operations to force the company to improve safety. Even the investigation into this tragedy has been anything but transparent. Elected officials show off at memorial services and pay lip service to the need to improve safety, but are full of excuses about when it comes to significant reform.
The prospects for Massey Energy being held accountable for reckless behavior are remote. The only indictments have been the company security chief lying to investigators and a foreman faking credentials. Don Blankenship has been given his golden parachute and told investigators he will not answer questions. Company ownership has already changed hands to protect stockholders. The courts in coal country are packed with judges that tilt the scales of justice against family members seeking redress.
Without significant reform and accountability, these men will have died in vain.
Don't kid yourself into thinking they had many other options to earn a living wage doing something else. The tyranny of life in much of southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and western Virginia is there are fewer employment options than ever before. And even the mining jobs are rapidly disappearing. West Virginia has been losing 12,000 mining jobs every decade since 1970 and job losses are increasing rapidly with mountaintop removal mining.
If you think your job is difficult, try theirs. Working thousands of feet below ground in cramped, dark, dirty, and dangerous conditions takes a special kind of person.
These men were canaries in a much larger coal mine. That coal mine is the America of the 21st century that creates too few decent jobs, fails to protect workers, and refuses to inconvenience corporations with regulations. If resource extraction is our economic future, then a wasteland awaits future generations.
Take a moment to hold these 29 men and their families in your heart.
The following site was created by students at West Virginia University as a memorial. It will stream the official memorial service at 6 PM EDT.
Faces of the Mine
A song written last year to pay tribute to the miners.