Jan. 5—The Sago coal mine in Upshur County, W.Va., where 12 miners were killed after a Jan. 3 explosion more than two miles from the mine mouth has a history of serious safety violations. Yet, according to government records, the mine’s owners have escaped significant fines.
Since taking office in 2001, the Bush administration has cut funding and staff at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the federal agency in charge of enforcing the nation’s mine safety laws. The Bush administration has eliminated 170 jobs at MSHA and proposed to cut the MSHA budget in fiscal year 2006 by some $4.9 million in real dollar terms.
Mine Workers union leaders and other job safety advocates say the nation’s mine safety is compromised by the Bush administration’s emphasis on voluntary compliance with safety rules—in contrast with previous administrations, which have favored strong enforcement. Safety advocates also say the close coal industry ties of Bush administration appointees to MSHA leadership positions have further weakened the MSHA’s commitment to safety enforcement. Bush has appointed former senior executives from Peabody Energy, AMAX Inc., the American Mining Congress, Cyprus Minerals Co. and other such companies to high-ranking posts within MSHA.
Mine Tragedy ‘Not a Surprise’
The Sago Mine is owned by the International Coal Group (ICG), which purchased it last year from Anker West Virginia Mining Co. In 2005, MSHA inspectors cited operators for more than 200 safety violations at the mine, including ventilation, roof support, escape-way and pre-shift safety exam violations. Yet the agency collected just $24,000 in fines or about $115 per violation.
“The bitter truth is that this tragedy was not a surprise—both because the mine had a disturbing safety record, and because the Bush administration in Washington has been undercutting mine safety,” the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette wrote in a Jan. 5 editorial.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts says MSHA’s on-the-ground inspectors and other safety professionals try to enforce mine safety rules and protect miners but are sometimes stymied by the Bush administration’s change in enforcement policy that emphasizes voluntary compliance over strict enforcement.
“We are concerned that MSHA has gone from a safety enforcement agency to a compliance consulting firm,” Roberts says.
UMWA mine rescue teams were some of the first on the scene and took part in the rescue attempts. The Sago miners were not members of UMWA. The lone survivor of the mine disaster, Randy McCloy Jr., 27, is undergoing treatment for the effects of oxygen deprivation and dehydration. McCloy has a collapsed lung and is undergoing dialysis.
“My dad would come home at night and tell me how unsafe the mine was,” John Bennett, whose 61-year-old father was killed in the blast, told NBC’s Today show Jan. 4.
“We need to get the United Mine Workers back in these coal mines to protect these workers,” he said. But he added that many of the miners fear management retaliation if they attempt to organize with the union.
Bush Administration Downplayed, Ignored Mine Safety
The AFL-CIO’s 2005 report Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect found that 17 proposed MSHA standards to improve safety and health for miners have been withdrawn since President George W. Bush took office.
“For the most part at MSHA, those standards that have been proposed during the Bush administration favor industry by rolling back existing protections. There are no pending standards to protect miners from the hazards of their job,” the report says.
In 2003, the Bush administration’s report on mining fatalities highlighted that deaths in the nation’s mines fell by 18 percent, but the report downplayed the fact coal mining deaths actually increased by 7 percent. The drop in mine fatalities occurred in metal and nonmetal mines, not in coal mines, where the death rate increased, according to MSHA.
In 2002, after Bush held a photo-op press conference to demonstrate his concern over a mining tragedy in Pennsylvania, he failed to respond to safety concerns expressed by House Democrats questioning why he had made so many cuts to mine safety programs.
Small Fines for Massive Safety Violations at Sago
Inspections in the final three months of 2005, including a Dec. 21 inspection less than two weeks before the deadly explosion, found 46 safety violations at Sago, including 18 classified as “significant and substantial.” The proposed fines for the major safety violations totaled just $2,286.
In 2004, the injury rate at Sago was nearly three times the national rate of that type of coal mine, according to MSHA.
“One might expect massive penalty assessments under federal law for such a dismal record,” Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Major Owens (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio). Miller and Owens are calling for oversights hearings on MSHA’s enforcement and regulatory actions.
The two lawmakers say the hearings should examine if MSHA’s fine levels “provide a sufficient deterrent to companies that would otherwise treat law-breaking as a cost of doing business,” noting the International Coal Group had revenues exceeding $136 million in 2004.
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