On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners and seriously injured two others. It was the worst mining disaster in the United States in almost forty years.
In response to what were the costs and benefits to stakeholders of the actions taken by Massey Energy and its managers, the final cost was the death of 29 miners and the injury of two others. Apart from having to work in horrendous work conditions and under almost complete disregard to the safety protocols, there were few benefits for the miners. One of the benefits was that they would be able to keep their jobs in exchange for their silence. Management required them to disregard the working and safety conditions within the mines. Management was not responsible and did
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Multiple administrative tools are available under current regulatory framework that would not require additional legislative action. There are many steps that can be taken in all levels of the mining industry. For example, Boards of directors should select ethical directors and advance managers through the organization based on a verified track record of successfully balancing the requirements of profit and productivity with the genuine interests of stakeholders and the need to obey all relevant laws. Perhaps managers should make it more than clear that the rule of the corporation is to observe with the law and to go beyond compliance to attain the best health and safety systems. Lastly, the boards of directors should create compensation systems that provide incentives for safe and environmentally inclusive operations while also applying penalties for noncompliance with the
He believes there are other ways to end Obama’s war on coal than to put the lives of coal miners and their families at risk. Using clean coal is one alternative Rockefeller presents instead of blocking the EPA’s rules on the pollutant gases. The safety of West Virginians is in his best interest. This speech reflects his ideas and beliefs about the past, present, and future use of coal. He supports the EPA’s rules on limiting mercury, acid gases, and other toxic pollution from power plants.
Ninoska Suarez History 601 Professor Nierick 10/20/14 Killing For Coal By Thomas G. Andrews Summary: Killing for Coal discusses the conditions in the Colorado coal mines leading up to the Ludlow Massacre and the Ten Day War of 1914. Andrew draws out the major players in the Colorado coal culture including land, labor, capitalized industrialization and labor resistance that give us an overall depiction of the world of coal mining in Colorado. Andrews, begins with an introduction of the graphic images of coal miners being asphyxia and slaughter by militia men and strike breakers hired by Rockefeller-owed Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, these events was later called Ludlow Massacre. These polarizing events produced coal miners to fight back which
It was April of 1914 when the National Guard went into the tent colony of Ludlow. The people of the Colorado Coal Strike were protesting for better working conditions and better pay after one person was killed on the job. THis strike leads to the Ludlow Massacre. The Ludlow Massacre was horrifying. The Ludlow Massacre killed many people by burning, shooting, or suffocation them.
In 1913-1914, miners in Southern Colorado, aggravated by low pay, bad working conditions, and an abusive system, voted to stop working and strike. The Colorado Coal Strikers of 1913-1914 endured harsh living conditions, disease, and oppression in order to better their lives. To resume work, the Rockefellers, who owned the mines, hired gunmen to compel miners to stop the strike, accept poor lifestyles, and get back to work. One of the major events of this strike was the The Ludlow Massacre, where miners and their families were massacred in a garish show of power. The Ludlow Massacre was the Rockefellers’ doing.
One major event that happened in the Mine Wars was at Paint Creek. In 1912 and 1913, Paint Creek went on a strike. It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in the 20th century. The strike started on April 18, 1912. The strike started because one of the operators rejected the demand of their unionized workers for a wage increase.
Coalmining was a prominent industry throughout eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, and Wyoming. In 1885, legislation was passed in order to restrict the working age of miners. Breaker boys, who worked aboveground to sort slate, rocks, and other debris from the coal, were required to be at least twelve years of age. Underground miners were required to be at least fourteen years of age. Boys ' parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date of birth in order to have their children, who were often as young as five or six years of age, work in the mines.
The U.S. government helped the mine owners by using policemen and the army to stop the workers’ rebellion, which was interfering with the capitalist social order and undermining the profitability of the mines. Background The period
Coal miners will always continue to fight for their rights to fair wages and health benefits. However, its apparent from the readings in class and this documentary that because coal miners were of a low social class often called hillbilly’s the mining corporations thought they could use them without giving them their full rights to fair wages and health compensation. In conclusion, the documentary film: Blood on the Mountain brought me to some new perspective on what coal miners had to go through, but I was also able to relate to this film because I had prior knowledge of these hardships. It was interesting on what these coal miners went through and I am glad I got to be able to hear from two different informative
The law was even on their side because they had money to support the one’s being elected. The poor would get a law in place and no sooner would the big companies get it revised with stipulations that made the laws unenforceable. Reece’s article brings these subjects to light for all to see, if you read the story. More people need to understand the coal industry from this point of
The company failed to ensure that the walls of the excavation be sloped or supported as required by regulation. 3. Why was it “unavailing R. Williams to argue that employees must take greater care to avoid placing themselves in harm’s way”? What role, if any, should employees’ actions have in determining liability under the OSH Act? According to our text, a claim like this misconstrues the purpose of the OSHA safety standards.
Many companies and factories don't meet their requirements when it comes to workers rights. During “the booming years” Workers didn't get all the benefits and needs they needed. Around 1911, On an average day one hundred people died on the job. The rights for the workers in the Shirtwaist factory were very poor. They got little to no rights and little to no pay.
Examine Your Response: Synthesis With ethics providing the base framework for the way we conduct ourselves on every level from individually to globally, it’s important to study them for a host of reasons. First and foremost, it allows us to analyze our behaviors and determine what criteria is valuable in our decision making processes. Studying ethics gives us different outlooks and perspectives on problems we may not consider when looking at it from our individually engrained default approach. It also allows us to look for shifts and changes in mindsets, attitudes, and values, so we can see how we’re progressing as a society. We’re also given the opportunity to compare and contrast our personal governing philosophies with those of others around us to see where we fit in with our society and measure how well we’re meeting the standards we set for ourselves.
Many of the employees keep beating around the bush with respect to their answers and defend their company, stating that all its practices are ethical and legal. He even interviews the head of Corporate Social Responsibility who acknowledges the problem and says that there is ‘no way to trace the minerals back to the mines that they come from.’ Nokia in its annual reports and on its website claims to be a market leader in Corporate Social Responsibility and Conscious Capitalism but these claims are mostly fabricated. These are simply words on a piece of paper to convince consumers that the product they’re buying is blood free and ethical when in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth. Several NGOs that were also interviewed by Poulsen confirm this fact and state that even though they’ve had the knowledge of the existence of this problem for ten years they have done more or less nothing to even take steps toward solving this problem simply because it will cost them money and diminish their
Researchers have “requested data from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas, all states heavily involved in the recent surge of oil and gas drilling, about complaints related to hydraulic fracking for oil and gas” for their research on fracking (Dechert). The research collected was shocking, over 2,000 complaints in Texas alone and several cases on well water contamination within the states mentioned in Decherd’s article. People need to be alerted about how real fracking is and the damages it is doing. These complaints and cases should be a wakeup call to the world and say that we should put it to a
Drilling into Disaster: BP in the Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Mexico is one of the valuable place in which it has variety of marine life, such as fish, shrimp and other species The issues of incident on spill oil should be on concerned as it leads to this disaster for human being and environment. The case is discussed how BP company responses. It means how its board and management accountability, corporate responsibility, risk management, code of conduct and whistleblowing, compensation practices, and stakeholder communications react on this disaster. With regard to the disaster, BP CEO should have behaved appropriately because he should have responsibility on his job and should give his employees a better solution better than not saying anything. The problem was still there even BP change CEO to Dudley.