Rep. Miller: One Year Later, a Promise Unfulfilled to Families of Upper Big Branch
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives today commemorating the Upper Big Branch mine tragedy in Montcoal, West Virginia that occurred on April 5, 2010. As the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, Rep. Miller called the only hearings last year that included families and miners of the mine disaster. He was also the lead sponsor of legislation to protect miners and hold dangerous mine operators accountable, which was blocked by Republicans last Congress.
Read or listen to the testimony of miners and families of Upper Big Branch
Below are are the video and the transcript of Rep. Miller's remarks as delivered:
Mr. Speaker, one year ago today, a massive explosion ripped through a two-mile area of the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. The explosion bent railroads tracks like pretzels and killed 29 miners.
This disaster laid bare the loopholes that riddle our mine safety laws. These loopholes allowed dubious mine operators like Massey Energy to violate mine safety rules repeatedly with impunity. In fact, the Upper Big Branch mine was allowed to remain open even though it was ordered to stop operations 51 times in the previous year because of severe safety hazards.
After the disaster, there were proclamations made from both sides of the aisle about taking meaningful action to honor the victims, so that something like this never happens again. However, standing here a year later, miners still face many of the same dangers as they did the morning before the tragedy in West Virginia.
Unscrupulous mine operators are still gaming the system by clogging it with thousands of appeals as a way to avoid paying strong penalties. Miners are still paralyzed with fear of being fired for speaking out because of weak whistleblower protections. Decisions made in the boardrooms to maximize coal production at the expense of miners’ safety remain unchallenged.
Management practices of illegally giving advance warning of pending inspections are still a mere misdemeanor.
Shortly after the Upper Big Branch tragedy, the Education and Labor Committee held the only hearings where Congress heard from families and miners affected by this tragedy. Many were reluctant to testify because they feared retaliation. For others there was a strong desire to tell their stories to prevent another tragedy in the coal mines in America.
Eddie Cook told us about dangerous practices he heard about from miners at Upper Big Branch mine after the explosion. He lost his 21-year old nephew Adam Morgan.
Adam’s father, Steve Morgan, said that when his son spoke up about unsafe conditions, management told him that he might just have to find another job. They did nothing about unsafe conditions.
Gary Quarles lost his only son at Upper Big Branch. Gary asked us to make a commitment to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Alice Peters testified about how her son-in-law Dean Jones was afraid to work in the mine because of the ventilation problems. But, Dean needed the job in order to keep his health insurance coverage for his special-needs son.
Clay Mullins lost his brother Rex at Upper Big Branch. Clay testified about how management would give advance warning of an impending mine safety inspection so they could quickly cover up any violations before the fed inspectors got to that part of the mine.
And, Stanley “Goose” Stewart was working in the Upper Big Branch mine the day it exploded. He testified twice before the committee about the persistent fear and intimidation faced by workers from Massey management.
Every mine law has been written with the blood of miners. And savvy political interests know that as attention to tragedy fades, so does the willingness of the Congress to act decisively. Families and miners also expressed this concern about this skepticism.
Looking back now a year later, their skepticism was entirely justified.
Congress has utterly failed to respond to the real problems that miners themselves have identified as safety hazards in their workplace. A toxic political environment has failed these families and the pay-to-play nature of our politics failed these families.
While congressional action was stymied, MSHA has been working hard and making adjustments, in the limited ways in which it can, to help prevent rogue mine operators from recklessly putting lives at risk. But, even with these measures, we’re hearing the familiar cries from big coal to maintain the status quo, while they continue to game the legal system designed to protect the miners who go to work in those mines every day.
They cry about their so-called ‘due process’? But what about the due process for the 29 dead miners who died in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion? And their families? And the miners who went to work today in the coal mines of America and their families?
Is Congress just going to sit here and simply wait for the next explosion, the next tragedy, the next loss of life? Are we going to let special interests continue to paralyze this institution?
These should not be hard questions for the Congress of the United States. Our ability to respond goes to the heart of who we are as a nation.
There are things Congress can and must do right now – and that only Congress can do – to better ensure that every miner who goes to work is able to return home safely to their families at the end of their shift. Congress has an obligation to make sure that is the case.
It’s long overdue to honor our promises to the families of 29 miners who perished a year ago for doing the job our nation relies on to provide its energy.
And it’s long overdue to give the rest of our nation’s miners modern health and safety protections.
I yield back.
Next Article