Pittsburgh Post Gazette.com by Ann Belser ...............quote:
"It's unfortunate that every mine-safety law on the books has been written with the blood of coal miners. It's taken tragedy to get legislation passed," Mr. Rahall said.
No, I didn't write those words. I just wish I was one tenth as eloquent as Mr. Rahall. I listened to the hearing that Sen. Arlen Specter PA-R held on the 24th of January. Sen. Byrd WVA-D was allowed to speak for as long as he needed during the opening statements. When he talked about those dark mines and the brave men who worked in them his eloquence and emotion moved me to tears.
I heard Sen. Specter tell the mine safety officials who were leaving the hearing room that they should not leave for another hour. To no avail, out they marched. I posted an article on spinflurry written by Ruth Marcus called "Contempt for Congress" that talks about the underlying reasons those men figured it was OK to leave the hearing room.
I learned from the televised hearing that mine owners could have provided their employees with a hand held locator device for about twenty bucks apiece. The entire cost for all the employees and to install the transponders inside the mines would cost the mine owner about one hundred thousand dollars. But they didn't do it. Now you know that is just disgusting. Why did that mine allow those men to go down into those mines without a twenty dollar device in their pocket?
Is this another case where conservative values outweighed compassion? Are those mine safety officials who left the the hearing room 'good job brownie' clones? The workers go to work with an ax over there necks every shift. The owners are let off the hook everyday. Safety inspectors turn in the reports but the enforcers don't enforce the rules. So if a shop doesn't want to provide a safe environment they get away with it. I wonder what those dead miners thought about the lack of a union steward in their non-union shop. I wonder how many times they wished for a shop steward to hear their greviance.
