View Full Version : Ham coal miner reveals facts on Sago disaster
Below is a link to an article that reports on the facts about the Sago coal mine explosion that have been brought to light by Randal McCloy, who is an amateur radio operator, callsign KC8VKZ.
What Randal has to say is very important. It shows how company greed led to the deaths of the miners at Sago. This article has additional information on the hearings that have been going on, and how the coal company bosses are trying to do a white wash.
I believe that strong unions are the key to safety in the coal mines, or any other workplace. I hope that there might be a way that ham radio operators can offer our public service communication skills to aid unions in organizing the unorganized.
73,
Ray, KG2B
http://themilitant.com/2006/7019/701904.html
Here we go again with the union organizing.
If the safety condiditon of that mine deteriorated to the point of causing the explosion in the six weeks the new company owned it I have just one question, where were the UNION safety stewards, up top eating doughnuts?
How many safety grievences were filed against the new company in the six weeks prior to the explosion?
Did you know that the "new owners" of the Sago mine, who you seem to think were innocent bystanders or something, came in with plans of tripling production, and after the twelve men were killed, they announced that they were still planning to do this?
According to MSHA, 34 miners died on the job the first four months of this year, 26 in coal and eight in other mines around the country. This far exceeds the number of deaths in ALL of 2005.
What is at stake is safety at mines and other workplaces all over, not just at Sago.
Sago was for a long while and so far still is, a non-union mine. We may see this change, hopefully.
Ray
kf6rdn
05-12-2006, 03:35 AM
You can believe in the goodness of unions, fine.. But amateur radio is NOT the place to organise unions. (I mean real radio, not these forums)
I think there are a lot of hams who are union supporters and who would like to discuss union issues. I think there may be ways, once in a while, where our communications skills can be put at the service of union activities. I would see that as a great public service.
Ray
KG2B
KD7WHQ
05-13-2006, 03:03 AM
As a Teamsters shop steward (on withdrawl), I'd certainly be interested in the wazzit on this. My being on withdrawl has naught to do with realities.
Something is just wrong here..
Quote[/b] ] I think there may be ways, once in a while, where our communications skills can be put at the service of union activities. I would see that as a great public service.
And I think the FCC would have an entirely different viewpoint.
The new owners having the goal of tripling the output of that mine has absolutely no bearing on what caused the explosion or the safety conditions in the mine on that day.
I am a former UAW member. I will never join another union as long as I live. I learned my lesson the hard way.
AC0H,
maybe you didn't read what Randal McCloy said. He reported methane problems before the explosion, and they were effectively ignored.
There's a simple reality here, one which I'm sure many of us have experienced ourselves. When you don't have a union at your workplace, and you go to report a problem about working conditions, maybe even a problem with safety, there is a strong possibility that you'll be told something like, "if you don't like it we'll get someone who will."
Now on the other hand, just having a union organization doesn't make it a paradise....I'm sure many of us have the sad experience, too, of unions not living up to their promise, because they have lazy bureacrats lording over the organization who are in bed with the company in many cases.
But the union is the members, and so having this organization gives you a tool you can use to fight for better conditions as a group, not as one lone person.
The tool might be rusty right now, but that doesn't mean you're better off with out the tool.
KC9ECI
05-13-2006, 11:58 AM
The worst treatment I've ever had as an employee was in a union shop. I'd tell you all what I really think of unions, but that kind of language isn't permitted at this website.
N1MLF
05-13-2006, 12:49 PM
The combined efforts of longshoremen, master-mates-pilots, and seamans international drove labor wages & benifits so high that Gulf oil and other US based merchant fleets had to tie up their vessels effectively putting about 50K people out of work.
IMHO unions are in a large part responsible for most of the "outsourcing" of labor today.
BTDT & used the tee shirt for target practice..:angry:
k4kyv
05-13-2006, 01:23 PM
Quote[/b] (AC0H @ May 11 2006,16:36)]Here we go again with the union organizing.
Here we go again with the union BASHING. (yawn)
Quote[/b] (kf6rdn @ May 11 2006,20:35)]You can believe in the goodness of unions, fine.. But amateur radio is NOT the place to organise unions. (I mean real radio, not these forums)
But, according to the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, we can discuss and debate the subject over the air, in a legal two-way QSO.
Five more miners killed in mine in Kentucky.
Best safety protection is a strong union.
N2ACX
05-21-2006, 09:28 PM
AC0HQuote[/b] ]I am a former UAW member. I will never join another union as long as I live. I learned my lesson the hard way.
Agreed there. I was a member of the IBEW in the early 70's.
I was called on the carpet for exceeding the daily completed jobs, I was told to only do so many per shift, to exceed that number would mean everyone would eventually be given more jobs/day. If you complete your work early,I was told to just "HIDE" someplace until 4:30PM and return for "check out". I told the shop stewart to 'stick it' and increased my daily tasks. We made great money because the union was sticking it to the company, bleeding them for high wages and outrageous benefits, like 20 days sick leave, The company eventually had to close the branches because of that.
I quit the union shop shortly after that, and got jobs in non union companies for the rest of my career making good money, where one is not penalized for exceeding expectations or the unions' idea of daily work quotas..
73 N2ACX
N5RLR
05-21-2006, 09:54 PM
Quote[/b] (KC9ECI @ May 13 2006)]<span style='color:red'>The worst treatment I've ever had as an employee was in a union shop. #I'd tell you all what I really think of unions, but that kind of language isn't permitted at this website.</span>
While I'll respect others' contrasting viewpoints, don't get me started about unions. #I'd be banned from QRZ, my IP, the Internet, radio, and even telephone lines, if I let loose with my opinion.