Trapped Miners part of a Pattern
I didn’t watch all the triumphant rescue clips on TV, though I’ve been hearing about it from the papers, and radio ad naseum. And its amazing what we can do these days. Uplifting to know that people trapped deep undergroup could be rescued, but what wasn’t considered news to the NYTimes, or practically anyone else, was the larger story, the systemic story, the one that isn’t about individual heroes, and triumphants.
The WSWS covers the story well, with interesting coverage that looks at the accident in context.
Since opening[less then 2 years ago], Quecreek has been cited 26 times for safety violations, but has been only fined $859. Of the 26 citations, 16 were levied in 2001 and were considered “significant and substantial.”
Over the past two decades, however, the government has spearheaded a ruthless offensive by the coal and energy companies to dismantle the past gains of the mine workers, especially as they impact workers’ health and safety, and the leadership of the United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) has collaborated in this assault.
On a side note, if you ever need an NYTimes link to a current popular story, ScriptingNews faithfully links to their version of whatever the hot story of the moment is. Better then a search engine.(especially the NYTimes one which is throwing a 500 error)