Mine safety

Methane a killer
As I've mentioned in a prior post the Bush administration was noted for cutting budgets and ignoring regulations. So too was it with the mining industry. With lobbyists dumping some $14 million of influence into DC companies have been bending er.. ignoring many of the laws and regulations in place to protect workers from workplace dangers. The attitude of get her done at all costs has been in place for many years now. It's so prevalent that it will take several years to undo what Bush and company did. We saw that with the banks which to date still have no oversight and they are back to doing exactly the things that got us into this mess.
I experienced this first hand in my own profession which made it quite difficult to protect myself and the public and still meet production schedules. I may have mentioned before that some years back a large job would require 15 to 20 workers was cut to 7 or 8 with no advanced technology to make up the difference. I was able to hit most of the production not by sheer effort but because I have been in the business so long that I remember techniques that others either didn't know or had forgotten. Still I saw an increase in worker injuries over the Bush years like never before and an attitude of production first public and worker safety last.

I feel truly bad for the families of that small mining town. They had neither the government to look out for their safety nor some union to back them up. I wonder if the company will even bother to pay to bury the dead. There's not usually a death benefit when you're non union. But the real kick in the pants is that the less one makes the worse one gets treated. All for this for the plain greed because it's cheaper to take a fine and loose a couple of workers than spend the money for safety.