As a Regulation Violator Is Indicted For 29 Deaths, Republicans Plan a Deregulation Frenzy
After the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, an explosion in West Virginia that left almost 30 miners dead, authorities finally began to assess the safety of Massey Energy’s Mines. Upon investigation they discovered that not only were the mines run incredibly dangerously, but that the managers were fully conscious of it and insisted that the employees disregard the unsafe conditions that they were working in. Donald Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy, is now facing criminal charges for violating safety standards and impeding inspections of their mines.
This scandal begs the question, at what point is production valued more than human life? The shock with which this incident was received leads us to believe that the majority of people understand the severity of this type of issue and would not partake in similar behaviour. There are, however, still some who are more concerned with making a profit than the safety of their employees. This calls into question the ethics of all managers at this mine, and makes us wonder how they can be okay with taking advantage of their workers. Safety standards in mines are becoming more and more strict, which is certainly shown when examining the number of mine related deaths over the past 100 years. According to the United States Department of labour, there were 16 miners that passed away in the United States in 2014. Looking back 50 years, there were 242, which shows us that we have significantly advanced. This leads us to believe that it is not the safety standards that are in place, but the corrupt managers that choose to ignore them. While I’d like to believe the Massey Energy scandal was an isolated incident, these types of mines exist all around the world and I believe it is time that we take a more serious approach to stopping them so that we can reduce the number of scandals that lead to completely preventable deaths.
Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/massey-ceo-to-stand-trial-2015-10?pundits_only=0&get_all_comments=1&no_reply_filter=1#comment-561115886da811c601f91146
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Big_Branch_Mine_disaster
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-13/ex-massey-energy-ceo-blankenship-indicted-over-disaster
http://www.mining.com/former-massey-coal-executive-sentenced-to-three-years-in-prison-for-endangering-miners-lives-76340/
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/11/20/regulation-violator-indicted-29-deaths-republicans-plan-deregulation-frenzy.html