The Mining Tragedy and Workplace Safety

The death of 12 coal miners in West Virginia this week is tragic, especially after reports that they were found alive proved to be untrue. And while this story played out on the visceral, emotional level we've come to expect from 24-hour cable news, it would be wrong not to put the tragedy, and the general issue of worker safety, into its proper context. Indeed we dishonor these workers' memories if we don't.

The Sago Mine, site of the tragedy, was cited hundreds of times in its history, including 21 times for a "build-up of combustible materials" at the mine. But the Bloomberg story shows how ridiculously easy it was for the company to shrug off these serious violations:

The Sago mine, owned by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross's International Coal Group Inc., was cited for a total of 208 federal safety violations last year, up from 68 in 2004, according to the Labor Department. The largest individual fine last year was $440; the citations for combustible materials carried fines of $60.

So what's easier for a billionaire to do: pay a $60 fine or pay the labor and capital costs associated with running a mine within the boundaries of the law? A $60 fine for putting workers at risk is insulting. Indeed, this is a problem not limited to the mining industry, but across every workplace in the country. The regulatory agencies have been de-fanged, understaffed, and given no tools to fulfill their mandate of protecting workers from occupational hazards. OSHA was humming along until the Republican revolution in Congress:

The 1990s enforcement data show that inspections and violations were stable through 1994 while penalties continued to increase. Inspections, violations and penalties declined sharply in 1995 and 1996 due to reinvention efforts and the Federal Government shutdowns. A partial recovery of inspections, violations and penalties occurred from FY 1997 to FY 2000.

We have to understand the battle lines here. Big corporations don't like any regulation that can force compliance. They'll pay a fine (read: bribe), sure, as long as the fine is miniscule and pesky and doesn't interfere with their profit margins. As corporations' fealties are to their shareholders and not their workers, profit trumps worker safety. And the Party most concerned with limited corporate regulation and oversight is, you guessed it, the GOP. This mining tragedy needs to be a touchstone for extending Homeland Security to the workplace. Too many people needlessly die from occupational and industrial accidents each year when the government has the apparatus to do something about it.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum has more. I thought it went without saying that the mining companies were into the Bush Administration for big money. I didn't know how big: over $3 mil. And they got one of their own to head the regulatory agency. All too typical.