Study of working conditions and labour relations in the coal mining industry in the USA, with particular reference to the activities of the united mine workers trade union - outlines the growth of the umw, strike and unofficial strike activities, collective bargaining issues, occupational accidents and occupational disease resulting from a lack of occupational safety standards, political aspects, etc., and comments on relevant labour legislation. Illustrations.
The Crowsnest Pass is famous for the tragic rock slide at Frank in 1903, but almost as famous are the many coal-mining tragedies that afflicted the region in the early twentieth century. With the discovery of a rich coal deposit in the region, the area underwent an economic boom and a spike in population that is still evidenced today. Unfortunately, with this type of mining, in rugged and often dangerous conditions comes the threat of disaster and occasionally death. This book examines carefully the various calamities that have afflicted the area and considers the impact on the inhabitants and victims of these numerous tragedies. Using original source material such as grave markers, folk songs, and oral histories, the author portrays vividly the psychological and sociological features of both the individual and collective responses to death and danger, giving the reader a unique picture of mining communities that is as true today as it was a century ago.
Ninety-nine men entered the cold, dark tunnels of the Consolidation Coal Company's No.9 Mine in Farmington, West Virginia, on November 20, 1968. Some were worried about the condition of the mine. It had too much coal dust, too much methane gas. They knew that either one could cause an explosion. What they did not know was that someone had intentionally disabled a safety alarm on one of the mine's ventilation fans. That was a death sentence for most of the crew. The fan failed that morning, but the alarm did not sound. The lack of fresh air allowed methane gas to build up in the tunnels. A few moments before 5:30 a.m., the No.9 blew up. Some men died where they stood. Others lived but suffocated in the toxic fumes that filled the mine. Only 21 men escaped from the mountain. No.9: The 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster explains how such a thing could happen--how the coal company and federal and state officials failed to protect the 78 men who died in the mountain. Based on public records and interviews with those who worked in the mine, No.9 describes the conditions underground before and after the disaster and the legal struggles of the miners' widows to gain justice and transform coal mine safety legislation.
Why do mine disasters continue to occur in wealthy countries when major mine hazards have been known for over 200 years and subject to regulation for well over a century? What lessons can be drawn from these disasters and are mine operators, regulators and others drawing the correct conclusions from such events? Why is mining significantly safer in some countries than in others? Are the underlying causes of disasters substantially different from those that result in one or two fatalities?This book seeks to answer these questions by systematically analysing mine disasters and fatal incidents in five countries (Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the USA) since 1992. It finds that there are 10 pattern causes which repeatedly recur in these incidents, namely:engineering, design and maintenance flaws,failure to heed warning signs,flaws in risk assessment,flaws in management systems,flaws in system auditing,economic/reward pressures compromising safety,failures in regulatory oversight,worker/supervisor concerns that were ignored,poor worker/management communication and trust, andflaws in emergency and rescue procedures.The vast majority of incidents entailed at least three of these pattern causes and many exhibited five or more. The book also demonstrates these pattern deficiencies are not confined to mining but can be identified in other workplace disasters including aircraft crashes, oil-rig explosions, refinery and factory fires, and shipping disasters. At the same time, the examination finds no evidence to support other popular explanations of mine safety which focus on behaviour, culture or complex technologies. It finds that there is little to differentiate the failures that lead to single death or multiple deaths and 'disaster' studies would benefit from also examining near misses.The book examines why pattern causes have proved so resistant to intervention by governments while also identifying instances where lessons have been learned. How, for example, do governments strike a balance between prescriptive regulation and risk management/system-based approaches? Only by understanding and modifying the political economy of safety can these problems be addressed. It concludes by proposing an agenda for change that will address pattern causes and contribute to safe and productive work environments. The book is written for those studying OHS, mine safety and risk management as well as those involved in the management or regulation of high hazard workplaces.In the news...Ten steps from disaster, The International Trade Union Confederation - Health & Safety News, 20 April 2015 Read full article...Disasters in high hazard workplaces are 'predictable and preventable', Hazards Magazine, March 2015 Read full article...Mine Accidents and Disaster Database, Mine Safety Institute Australia, March 2015 Read full article...OHS Reps - Research News, SafetyNetJournal, 12 February 2015 Read full article...The 10 "pattern" causes of workplace disasters, OHSAlert, 11 February 2015 Read full article...New book challenges current OHS trends, SafetyAtWorkBlog, 2 February 2015 Read full article...Tasmania needs more mines inspectors, Australian Mining Magazine, 2 October 2014 Read full article...Australian mine deaths preventable if warnings heeded, WorkSafe seminar hears, ABC News, 2 October 2014 Read full article...Lessons from Tasmania's mining industry for all workplaces, TasmanianTimes.com, 1 October 2014 Read full article...Auditor Says Tasmanian Mine Safety in need of Urgent Review, Australasian Mining Review, 16 July, 2014 Read full article...Damning report on Tasmanian mine safety finds inspectors over-stretched, poorly paid, ABC News, 15 July 2014 Read full article...Call for support for grieving families backed, The Examiner, 22 April 2014 Read full article...
Relive the drama of the Knox Mine Disaster of January 22, 1959, through the voices of survivors, the victims' families, contemporary newspaper accounts, and the literature and music generated by the tragedy. Read the poignant and often shocking first-person accounts of those who lived through one of the most devastating disasters in American mining history. This companion volume to the best-selling book The Knox Mine Disaster, published in 1999 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, also offers a detailed study on how the citizens of northeastern Pennsylvania have memorialized and remembered the last major catastrophe to strike Pennsylvania's anthracite industry.
Concentrating on technology, economics, labor, and social history, Cradle to Grave documents the full life cycle of one of America's great mineral ranges from the 1840s to the 1960s. Lankton examines the workers' world underground, but is equally concerned with the mining communities on the surface. For the first fifty years of development, these mining communities remained remarkably harmonious, even while new, large companies obliterated traditional forms of organization and work within the industry. By 1890, however, the Lake Superior copper industry of upper Michigan started facing many challenges, including strong economic competition and a declining profit margin; growing worker dissatisfaction with both living and working conditions; and erosion of the companies' hegemony in a district they once controlled. Lankton traces technological changes within the mines and provides a thorough investigation of mine accidents and safety. He then focuses on social and labor history, dealing especially with the issue of how company paternalism exerted social control over the work force. A social history of technology, Cradle to Grave will appeal to labor, social and business historians.
The searing true story of the rise, fall, and resurrection of Massey Energy, and the negligence that led to the death of 29 miners, exposing the coal-black motivations that fuel the ongoing war for the world's energy future.
From the 1880s to the 1980s more than eight thousand workers died in the coal mines of the Rocky Mountain states. Sometimes they died by the dozens in fiery explosions, but more often they died alone, crushed by collapsing roofs or runaway mine cars. Many old-timers in coal-mining communities and even some historians haveøblamed the high fatality rate on ruthless coal barons exploiting miners in the single-minded pursuit of profit. The coal industry preferred to blame careless miners. James Whiteside looks beyond those charges in seeking to explain why the western coal mines were (and, to some degree, still are) dangerous and why territorial, state, and federal laws failed for so long to make them safer. Regulating Danger is the first extended study of the coal-mining industry in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. It exceeds the scope of traditional labor history in focusing on working conditions and the problems of workers instead of unions and strikes. After examining the inherent physical dangers of the work, Whiteside shows how the interplay of economic, social, and technological forces created an envi-ronment of death in the western coal mines. He goes on to discuss evolving industrial and political attitudes toward issues of responsibility for mine safety and government regulation and the fundamental changes in the industry that brought about safer working conditions.
