Feds: Massey pressured WV miners to fake records

Feds: Massey pressured WV miners to fake records

news.yahoo.com

BEAVER, W.Va. (AP) — Federal investigators say managers pressured coal miners to file fake reports to mislead safety inspectors before a West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 men last year.

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I'm so enraged I can hardly see straight. Massey Energy knew that mine was unsafe. They knew people could get hurt, and guess what? They didn't give a DAMN. It's all about the money for these heathens. How many other mines did they lie about? Where is the outcry from my fellow West Virginians??

Here's another tidbit of information. Massey Energy was recently sold to Alpha Resources. So, it is my opinion that they knew they were going to get caught and wanted to ditch their "fall guy" (the Massey Energy corporation). It's a total abuse of the system and it is just flat out WRONG. (NYTimes link verifies the sale of Massey to Alpha)

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

profit over safety

score one for corrupt capitilism !

im honestly not shocked. nor surprised .

This is a daily problem in many different sectors around the globe.


pesky profits!!! over compassion and empthy .


the feds are just as guilty

Here's another article just posted with much more detail:
Feds : Mine fakes reports before deadly W.Va. blast

"The investigation team concluded that the managers were aware that chronic hazardous conditions were not recorded," he said during a briefing on the federal investigation. Testimony from some of the 266 witnesses MSHA has interviewed also "indicated that management pressured examiners to not record hazards in the books."

Alpha Natural Resources spokesman Ted Pile said Wednesday the company was hearing about the faked reports for the first time.

"It's a claim I'm sure we'll look into as we conduct our own review of what happened," Pile said in an email to The Associated Press.

Oh, I'm sure you will, buddy, I sure you will.

if you remember, UBB was forced to change thier ventilation plan by MSHA because "it worked for a mine in Illinois", and that's when they started having problems with having to evacuate the mine often.
The findings come from the same man who let 12 miners die at Sago in 2006 by wanting to use that worthless robot and holding up rescue crews, so it's not suprising that Stricklin would find something to pass the blame onto the operator.
As far as McAteer goes, he needs to be arrested for all the oxygen he steals. He's truly a waste of skin.
One of the main reasons I got off of the mine rescue team I was on is, thanks to Mr. Stricklin is it's now "Mine Recovery".
Massey wasn't the cleanest of companies to work for, but they weren't the worst either, if you want corrupt, talk to some ex-union workers. It's sad when anyone gets killed while doing thier job, and I'm sorry for any families loss, but coal mining is one of the few industries where all the laws are written in blood.....

There is still the coal guard in WV, still firm on coal being the soul future of the state. Being a West Virginian myself, I often wince at David McKinley campaign's praising coal. He even has legislation to strip alot of the protection offered by the EPA to resident's and the environment.

To me it is clear that natural gas is a much cleaner resource we should be embracing here. In terms of burning it, but it still can be very damaging to extract from the earth. Fortunately, it seems like outside companies are (for the most part) going to do it right with good oversight and reward land owners for taking their minerals... I am hoping they are as least less corrupt then the coal industry has been here, and less backwards.