Alpha Natural Resources has reached an $8.5 billion deal to buy Massey Energy Corp., owner of the Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) coal mine where 29 miners were killed in an April explosion, and owner of other mines with long histories of safety and health violations.

Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says the takeover could have a positive impact for Massey’s workers.

While by no means perfect, Alpha’s overall safety record is better than Massey’s. Alpha’s got quite a job on its hands to turn the former Massey mines around from Massey’s safety-last culture. But if they are successful, the miners at the former Massey mines will be at less risk than they have been.

Alpha operates some 60 mines while Massey owns about 50 coal mines.

Roberts says that Massey, which has had a long and contentious relationship with the UMWA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and state safety agencies, had come to represent:

all that was wrong with the coal industry, whether it be safety and health issues, environmental issues or simple respect for its workers, their families and the communities where they live.

Currently the UMWA represents about 1,500 Alpha miners and 1,000 more retirees. Although the union has “open lines of communications with the company,” Roberts says,

It should come as no surprise to Alpha that we strongly believe both the company and the workers would be better off with a larger union presence at the company moving forward, and we are working toward that goal.

Click here, here and here for more on Massey’s safety record and Upper Big Branch.