For those who haven’t been collecting Coal Baron bubblegum cards-
Don Blankenship was Chairman and CEO of Massey Energy. Massey had a strong
balance sheet, but a horrible safety record. So bad that miners near
retirement would quit a job if Massey bought them out rather than risk life
and limb. Produce, produce, produce….and cut corners with safety. The
Fed Govt are all red Socialists out to get him. The GOP can do no wrong.
For the 2008 election, he sponsored a rally/concert in southern WV with
Hannity from Fox News and Ted Nugent . All in support of the “miners” and
against that Kenyan. Spent tens of thousands of dollars.
Then 3 days later, during a holiday, he laid off whole work forces. After
all, the background for the pictures and videos were no longer needed.
He had ways of dodging mine inspectors and even treated a WV Supreme Court
Judge to a French Rivera trip and hookers.
Just a good ‘ole boy.
Anyway, 2010, one of his mines in Raleigh Co. blows up and kills 29 miners.
Methane and Coal dust build up. Machinery to clear the same and provide
safety were out of repair or turned off. They reduce production. Site had
numerous safety violations but continued to operate. Reports say he was
micromanaging the mine with hourly reports as it was one of the more
profitable at the time. After the explosions, all the problems surface.
Superintendents and shift bosses go to jail for a couple of years…..but
they seem to have rolled over for lighter sentences.
In the mean time Don was thrown out of Massey, which was sold to Alpha
Resources..who paid off claims to widows and orphans…all in an attempt to
make it go away. Don spends a lot of money making a documentary claiming
that the gas was a freak act of God and the government reports are all wrong
because they are out to get him.
Then another explosion-
Don gets a large Fed Indictment. The First (?) of a coal executive above
the mine level. Evidently there is a paper trail and the micromanaging
can’t be hidden.
——excerpt———-
“The indictment comes after a more than four-year investigation that began
following the mine disaster on April 5, 2010, but expanded to examine a
troubled safety record that critics have long argued put coal production and
profits ahead of worker protection.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby has led an unprecedented government
effort to link major safety lapses at Upper Big Branch and other Massey
mines up the corporate ladder to Blankenship, who was known for keeping a
firm grip on every aspect of Massey’s operations during nearly two decades
at the company’s helm…..
Two government and two independent investigations blamed the Upper Big
Branch deaths on a pattern by Massey of violating federal standards
concerning mine ventilation and the control of highly explosive coal dust,
both of which set the stage for a small methane ignition to turn into a huge
coal-dust-fueled explosion.
– See more at:
http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141113/GZ01/141119629#sthash.0wAda0S7.dpuf
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As said before, this is the first reach into the boardroom/ownership of a
coal operation for safety and federal violations. U.S. Attorney Booth
Goodwin is a WV native and an Obama nominee. Does anyone think that an
other party nominee would have followed the trail as closely?
R
Will WV voters care?
Buffalo Creek Flood
Arch A Moore, Jr.
Shelly Moore Capito – 2012 Capito said she planned on fighting to “dismantle the federal health care overhaul and challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Trounced Tennant in 2014
My father spent his youth in a southern West Va. coal mining town near Welch. I believe it was called Thorpe W. Va. If things had gone differently for him, I could have turned out to be a miner myself. I appreciate the article.
Thorpe-
Just asked a co-worker who grew up in that area, he said that’s where are the babies were from..that’s why he stayed away <g>
How much profits are enough? Ask any business.
There “were” two types of coal operators in the past.
Those whose owners lived in or near the coal camps and had a sense of community with the folks who were their neighbors. Doctors, ball fields, theaters, etc.. were all part of that past culture.
The others were out of state corporations who had little regard about the local communities and people who lived and worked there. The Union was the only check on them.
The first are gone. The second are powerful once the Union has been cut down to a shadow of its former self. You can argue why that is, but its a fact. Once the coal disappears or gets too expensive to mine, you have McDowell Co. Look it up, that’s where Thorpe is.
For 100 years they have dug billions of dollars of coal out of Southern WV. The streets should be paved with gold and the schools, hospitals, etc.. should be some of the best in the country. Instead its funded schools, hospitals, roads in Penn, NY, Conn…. That is due to the corruption of local and state govt. A resignation sets in as its always been that way. The only way it will change will be to challenge the power of the out of state corporations through taxes and regulation. That is what part of the resentment of the EPA is all about. It challenges the power of those corporations to do what they want, when they want and to whatever community they want.
Marie2 asks when will the WV voters wake up?
When the only countervailing voice (the Union) is impotent, then all they hear is the voice of the Company on TV, radio, newspapers, gossip at the load out…that’s all they will know.
R
R Again thanks for the article. We visited Thorpe in my youth one day, my Dad wanted me to know “where he came from”. At the time (around 1958 or 9) things were all shut down there. Only a few people lived there. You referred to “that’s where are the babies were from… ” can you clarify?
I guess he meant that’s where girls got pregnant, and he steered clear.
Coal camps in the 1920’s and later were very rough places. Deadwood and Dodge City had nothing on them. Towns like Keystone had famous brothel areas and running poker games that lasted for years. My late grandfather was a doctor in one and before church on Sunday, my uncle had to scrub the blood off the porch from patching up the knife and gunshot wounds. My Mom watched a man die in the front room as her Dad tried to stich him up. Work 6 days a week and cut loose on Saturday night. Imigrants from southern and central Europe, blacks from the deep South, local hillbillys, corporate gun thugs, union organizers, gamblers, whores, the county High Sheriff and his subSheriff deputies working for the Company, WWI veterns, feuds, mine wars, strikes, ….all of it. People were a lot less complacent then.
Wiki tells us that Thorpe was incorporated into Gary, WV. It was probably a dozen houses long the tracks with a creek and a road running beside it. The mine up the hollow and a tipple for load out. Hundreds of little communites like all through Appalachia. I have a friend out in the Plains states whose family was from one in Raleigh Co. Stopped a took a picture. He showed it at a family picnic and all the aunts and uncles cried. Its different in the mountains and you never really leave.
R
An interesting web site that is kinda old but good photos-
http://coalcampusa.com/sowv/index.htm
R Thank you again! The pictures turn on some old memories. I think my Dad worked for a time at the mine in Gary also. The story you tell is so representative of the history of the mining industry in the U.s. The union movement essentially started with the miners and spread to other industries. In this day of Union bashing, it would be mind opening for younger folks to learn about what their great grandparents organized for. Perhaps some attitudes would change.
Don Blankenship appeared in US Fed court today (Nov 20 in Beckley, WV) and pled Not Guilty to the grand jury charges during his arraignment.
What I found Very Interesting were the limitations imposed by the court at the recommendation of Asst. US Attorney Steve Ruby, Despite claiming now to be a resident of Nevada, Blankenship was ordered to remain in the Southern District of WV court territory or Pike Co, Ky. Surrender his passport and put up a 5 mill. $ cash bond. Any trips outside that region has to be approved by court authorities. That plus he or anyone associated with him can have NO contact with witnesses or former employees. These are Mafia Don restrictions.
Seems like the Court is taking the possiblity that Don may skip the trial quite Seriously.
—-excerpt—-
The judge said Blankenship has residential property in several states and that information supplied to the court indicated that he “travels often internationally” and “has substantial wealth.”‘
VanDervort said that, given the “circumstances alleged in the indictment and the nature of the charges,” Blankenship has substantial motive and reason to flee before trial.
The judge said allegations in the case suggest Blankenship has a “disdain for the supervisory role of the federal government,” and that he was concerned that, “at some time,” Blankenship would come to view “this court and these proceedings with equal disdain.”
– See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141120/GZ01/141129947/1101#sthash.3g7eIAim.dpuf
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R