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player ready...The United Mine Workers of America union released a report Wednesday criticizing government inspectors and mine operators for an Alabama mine disaster that claimed 13 lives in September 2001.
The union said inspectors with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration issued small fines for major, potentially deadly violations at the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 Mine in Brookwood, Ala. When citing safety violations, inspectors repeatedly listed only one miner as being affected by violations, although many miners faced danger from the conditions, the report said.
These inspection lapses kept fines low and encouraged violations, the union concluded.
An MSHA report last month on the Jim Walter disaster blamed the company for eight major violations that contributed to the disaster. But the union recommended that MSHA reopen that investigation, saying the agency “sidestepped” key issues. As examples, the union report claimed that Jim Walter officials made changes to the ventilation system without the review or approval of MSHA and also instructed miners not to note certain hazards in their official examination books.
Jim Walter Resources spokesman Kyle Parks vigorously disputed those claims Wednesday.
Parks said all changes in ventilation were made in close coordination with MSHA inspectors, and he added that ventilation problems appeared to have played no role in the blast.
Parks said the company never pressured miners to ignore violations. “There was no deep, dark plot not to report hazards,” Parks said.
Dave D. Lauriski, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, was unavailable for comment.
But developments Wednesday–the union report and an unrelated mine accident in West Virginia that killed three–are likely to increase pressure for reform at Lauriski’s MSHA. In recent years, U.S. coal production has climbed to record levels, but MSHA has faced budget cuts amid criticism that it has failed to properly monitor mines or enforce safety laws.
This week, an internal MSHA report acknowledged weaknesses in the agency’s oversight of a Kentucky mountaintop coal reservoir that ruptured in October 2000, polluting rivers and wells.