MASSEY MINERS: Put the CEOs on Trial NOW!

My grandfather was a miner and his father before him. They mined coal in South Wales. They were members of the National Union of Miners. On our front room mantel, I have my grandfather's small snuff box that he took down the pit with him every day.

My grandfather suffered the death of millions of miners globally and historically: his lungs were cut to pieces by decades of exposure to small particle coal dust. He essentially suffered a death akin to a slow protracted drowning. But many of his comrades did not live past their twenties, instead dying in mining "accidents." These accidents were no more accidental than the companies that refused to pay the cost of face masks or breathing aparatus that would have averted black lung.

On Friday four families heard that the missing miners in the Massey miner were declared dead. This, like so many great tragedies, is not a natural one, but a man-made one. It is the product of greed from the top and to a lesser degree the reduced militancy of our trade union movement.

Last week, the United Mineworkers President made the following statement on its website:
“Every year, like clockwork, at least one person has been killed since 2000 on the property of Massey or one of its subsidiaries. With those already known to be dead at Upper Big Branch, it’s now up to 45 people in the past 11 years, and four more missing at this point. No other coal operator even comes close to that fatality rate during that time frame. That demands a serious and immediate investigation by MSHA and by Congress.”

That's a total of 49 workers dead. 49.

He stopped short of arguing for criminal charges against every profiteer and enabler in the top circles of the Massey corporation.

This is a massacre. It is the worst industrial "accident" since 1970. The race for greater profits is not an "accident" but is purposeful.

Our sympathies go out to all the miners families, for the 29 recently dead and the 49 since 2000.

For a Stronger Union and the public ownership of all mines under democratic control by working people.