Labor & Employment Law

MSHA Seeks Closure of Massey Kentucky Mine for Pattern of Safety Violations

By Mike Hall

A Massey Energy Co.-owned mine in Kentucky, which has amassed nearly 2,000 safety violations since June 2008, is ?one accident away from tragedy? and needs to be shut down, say federal mine safety officials.

No coal mine has ever been shut down for a pattern of safety violations, but the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) asked a federal court yesterday to shut down a mine?Freedom Energy?s Mine No. 1 in Pike County. Says MSHA administrator Joe Main:

Freedom Energy has demonstrated time and again that it cannot be trusted to follow basic safety rules when an MSHA inspector is not at the mine. If the court does not step in, someone may be seriously injured or die.

Freedom Energy is a Massey subsidiary.

MSHA  says the  mine operates in a coal seam ?that liberates massive amounts of methane gas? and has been cited for excessive accumulations of explosive methane and coal dust, failure to ventilate methane, failure to protect against roof and rib (mine sides) collapses, failure to test and maintain electrical equipment, among the 1,952 safety violations. MSHA also ordered portions of the mine shut 53 times this year for major safety violations.

In the past two years, seven miners have been injured at this operation as a result of a collapsing roof. Moreover, since Aug. 11, 2010, six major roof falls have occurred in the mine.

The mine safety agency says it has met numerous times with upper mine management to correct the safety problems, but

the inspections, citations and meetings with mine management have not resulted in changes in behavior.

Massey owns the Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine where 29 miners were killed in the April explosion.  That mine also had a long history of safety violations. At least six officials at Massey Energy pleaded the Fifth Amendment?asserting their constitutional right against self-incrimination?and declined to testify in a joint state and federal investigation into the deadly Upper Big Branch mine explosion in April, according to a recent report on NPR.

Mine Workers (UMWA) spokesmen Phil Smith says the MSHA?s move to shut down the nonunion mine also adds

yet another page to the growing list of serious safety problems at Massey mines, which leads one to wonder if they will ever be able to overcome the culture of production-first, workers-last that has become so prevalent within that company. It certainly seems impossible under the current corporate leadership, who fostered that culture.

If the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issues the injunction, Freedom Energy will be required to close its mine temporarily and take specific actions before it can re-open. Freedom must correct all hazardous conditions in its mine and establish a health and safety management program for approval by MSHA before resuming production.

Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith says that ?although this is the first time the department has utilized this legal remedy, it will not be the last.?

The solicitor’s office will work closely with MSHA to ensure that we use every tool possible to keep miners safe.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 04, 2010 (boomark / email).