tribute to miners ~ shame to bob murray

The recent tragedy that has likely resulted in the deaths of 6 hard-working miners in Utah is a direct result of the strenuous efforts of the principal owner of Murray Energy Corp, Mr. Bob Murray, who spent more energy side-stepping compliance with basic safety regulations and cheating workers out of equitable wages.
     This is not Murray's first time in the spotlight.
     In 1996, Murray asked mine workers at his Powhatan No. 6 mine in Alledonia, Ohio to agree to a wage freeze through 2001." Att he time United Mine Workers of America Secretary-Treasurer Carlo Tarley recalled "[Murray] said it was so he could establish coal orders and show his customers that there would be long-term labor stability." But in 2001 and 2004 Murray refused to honor other contractural agreements with the workers, has engaged in efforts to disband unionized workers and forced them in to earning lower wages than organized coal miners elsewhere in the nation.
     In 2001, Murray testified before a House Ways and Means subcommittee, on behalf of the National Mining Association, in support of several proposed tax cuts that would benefit mine owners, not workers.
     The Murray Energy Corp. Political Action Committee has given more than $155,000 to Republican candidates, including $30,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, since 2005, according to Federal Election Commission records. Murray's money aided Republican Senate candidates such as George Allen in Virginia, presidential candidate Sam Brownback of Kansas and Katherine Harris of Florida. Murray also personally donated $50,000 to defeated Ohio congressman Mike DeWine who lost after a controversial, deceptive ad campaign against his democratic opponent in 2006.
     But about his mining operations, Robert Murray's Cleveland-based Murray Energy Corp. has 19 mines in five states and his companies have incurred millions of dollars in fines over the last 18 months.
     And although some say that Utah's Crandall Canyon mine, where the fate of the miners still remains unknown, safety record was remarkably good, Government mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the Utah mine since January 2004, according to federal Mine Safety and Health Administration online records. Of those, 116 were what the government considered "significant and substantial," meaning they are likely to cause injury. Safety violations in other Murray Energy mines, since 1999, have totaled over $3 million in fines; $1.46 million of that paid in 2007 alone, from a mine operation in southern Illinois.
     Even though credible evidence indicates that the tremors from the mine collapse registerd 3.7 in the Richter scale, and geologists have clearly sourced the origins of the tremors to the collapse, Robert Murray disingeneously blames a non-existent earthquake on the mine collapse.
SOURCE INFO: Forbes Magazine, United Mine Workers of America, CBS News, Salt Lake Tribune, CNN, Wikipedia, Salt Lake Desert Morning News, The Militant. BOTTOM IMAGE: Labor Beat published this memorial of the infamous 1898 Virdin Massacre when Chicago-Virden Coal Company’s armed guards fired on striking miners to break the newly formed union. Seven miners and five guards were killed.