Union data shows union mines have fewer deaths

Last week we excerpted a column from Truthout about the underplayed role of union-busting in the West Virginia mine disaster narrative. But are union mines actually safer than non-union ones? The data compiled by the United Mine Workers indicates they are, Daniel Malloy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Of the 265 coal mining fatalities recorded since 2002, just over 11 percent occurred in union mines, but 27 percent of miners were represented by the union during that time. In 2009 just one of the 18 (5.6 percent) coal-mining deaths was at a union mine, while just three of 29 (10.3 percent) occurred in union facilities in 2008.

"In a nonunion mine, a miner is between a rock and a hard place," said Tony Oppegard, a Kentucky mine safety lawyer, told Malloy. "If you [raise a safety concern] in a nonunion mine, you're probably going to be fired or at least suspended. You can bring a federal action -- a safety discrimination case. But that's time-consuming and could take a couple of years." Union officials say the increased emphasis on safety and working conditions unions bring could have helped prevent the tragedy that killed 29 miners last week at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine. The Mine Safety and Health Administration and mining industry groups told Malloy they do not track safety statistics to reflect work force unionization, and some industry leaders criticized the UMW data for its small sample sizes.

"The union mines have safety committees, so they do have an extra set of eyes. So if there's something going on at the mine there might be one additional avenue that we may be aware of," Joseph Sbaffoni, Pennsylvania's director of the state Department of Mine Safety, told Malloy. "But from our perspective, we don't see much of a difference between them." Unionization doesn't appear to be a major focus of the congressional investigation into the West Virginia explosion, but one representative told Malloy she hoped the incident would serve as a rallying point for union membership. The UMW says it's making a renewed push to organize in mines, but was hesitant to refer to the Upper Big Branch disaster as a rallying point out of respect to the dead. (Read more)