Friday, November 14, 2014

Don Blankenship Indicted Regarding Upper Big Branch Mine Violations

It's good to hear that Don Blankenship, who was CEO of Massey Energy when the Upper Big Branch Mine blast killed 29 workers, has been indicted for what really always looked to me like a criminal disregard for the lives of his employees. His poor ability to separate regard for  profit from duty to ensure mine safety seemed to me of a piece with a sense that employees were property--owned by the company. So why did it matter if some got killed here and there? He didn't just cost the company millions in fines and settlements--he's possibly cost himself his freedom.

Since the disaster never did cost him a place in the industry, maybe this is the message that was required that miners' safety matters.

1 comment:

Shirt said...

More like this please... Starting with banksters?

Shirt

The Red Line for Journalism

  I wonder why Speaker Johnson is so passionately weighing in on the Ronna firing… oh… https://t.co/Ek1OdMBDyN pic.twitter.com/uh7JEewLpr ...