I did not realize just how Evil - Massey Coal & Energy corp is

Some choice quotes:

At those methane levels everyone knew the shaft was gong to blow. No one listened to them including regulators.

In an especially vindictive move, workers said that Massey has refused to allow miners time off so that they can attend the funerals of their coworkers.

The size of the explosion suggests an extremely concentrated buildup of methane gas and coal dust at the Upper Big Branch mine. It exemplifies the disregard for the human lives with which Massey Energy, abetted by mine regulators, makes its profits.

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Massey Energy told employees that if they miss work to attend the funerals they would be fired, workers said.

Smith said that the reason Massey has been so successful was because they are able to undercut the competition at workers’ expense.

“They have everything a mine operator could want. They buy off judges and have political connections. They disregard safety rules; they get away with it. And most of all they work you to the bone.”

I hope the people who run that company rot in jail for murder.

Those may or may not be legitimate complaints, but your source doesn’t inspire confidence in me that it is entirely unbiased.

Damn those Chine… oh wait.

While I wouldn’t necessarily rule out the idea of an American Mining Company closeting their executives in a smoke-filled room and teaching them how to steeple their fingers and plot evil, I would prefer a data source that didn’t publicly and uncontroversially label themselves socialists and associate with that particular ideology.

But supplying the Financial Times as a source on financial policy is somehow more acceptable?

I don’t know if I’d say Massey is completely evil, but their CEO, Don Blankenship, is certainly about as business-slimy as it gets. Massey and Blankenship are almost always in the news in southern WV for some transgression or another. Their Wikipedia entry gives a pretty good overview. The company does tend to have questionable ties to the West Virginia Supreme Court, as well. For the sake of full disclosure, I am from the WV coal fields and have a number of family members employed by Massey.

I can attest to the fact that Massey did not give its men a day off for the funerals, but I haven’t heard if they threatened to fire their miners for attending.

This beggars belief. Pure evil, indeed.

It was interesting auditing the Black Lung Fund they set aside to pay off the (thousands) of families who had someone succumb/afflicted with the disease. Maybe I’m ignorant, but I thought that would be something that wouldn’t exist any more due to technology and regulations.

If Black Lung is caused by coal dust, I’m not sure there’s a way to prevent it from happening in a coal mine. If Justified is any indication (it probably isn’t) coal mining is a pretty shit job in general - I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just one of those known illness things, but maybe somebody who actually knows what the hell he’s talking about can correct me.

The not letting them off thing might SEEM like an asshole move, but sometimes there are other considerations. If this were a refinery, for instance, and there was a tiny accident at an unrelated piece of equipment a little ways over that killed one or more dudes, you wouldn’t let the plant off to go attend services no matter how well-loved they were because shutting down and starting up that equipment costs a hell of a lot of money - more than could possibly be justifiable. I have no idea whether coal mining facilities use the same sort of continuous-run process, though.

What gets me is the allegation that they ignored safety regulations. That right there WOULD be pretty damn evil.

Evil? Nonsense, this is capitalism, they want to earn the most money possible, whats your problem?

If you want to defend yourself join a union, but I guess thats just being a commie.

That’s stupid, considering that WE LIVE IN A SOCIALIST COUNTRY.

True, true. Though I think that this source in particular identifies themselves as identifying with the International Socialist community, which makes them part of the One World Order.

We’re just a Freemason away from a clear and immediate Illuminati disinformation plot.

So your problem is their honesty? Would you rather they just pretend to be fair, like some other news agencies which we could mention?

As for the Freemasons, I don’t see how people get from businessmen dodging their wives on a weeknight to world domination, but I guess with the level of intelligence it takes to make up a big fake group and thirty billion levels of advancement just so that you can sit around with your friends and drink beer in someone’s baa…

Freemasonry is D&D for old people.

Basically, yes. In scientific literature, it’s referred to as Publication Bias. Admitted Socialists are likely to be deliberately harsh on large businesses because they don’t like them for ideological reasons. For instance, in this case I would be mildly surprised if somebody from the company actually said “If you go to that funeral you are fired, dipshits” - instead, my experiences and the stories I’ve heard make it seem more likely that somebody from the company probably said that individuals who didn’t have scheduled leave for that day who failed to report for work would be disciplined, up to and including termination, and probably stressed that this was pretty much the same as any other day, which it probably was from a policy standpoint.

That’s why outside confirmation by multiple sources is usually good, and publication and reporting bodies that at least attempt to maintain a veneer of impartiality are generally preferable to folks that don’t. It’s why I wouldn’t go to the Christian Science Monitor for science reporting (although they’re perfectly fine for foreign affairs).

As for fnord Freemasons fnord fnord, well, you clearly haven’t investigated the fnord duplicity fnord and fnord scope fnord of the fnord fnord fnord threat they pose to human civilization fnord.

I believe, however, that if you bury five hundred dollars in a cigar box in your back yard somebody should be along to discuss membership in the Ancient Illuminated Order. There must be a backlog of applicants, though - I’ve been waiting for a couple years.

Fair enough, but I’ll take open barking at the competition across the fairway in the marketplace of ideas to the fraud perpetrated by subversives anyday of the week except on Sunday, which is the day I usually like it quiet.

Regarding the Freemasons, post a picture of a newscaster with lizard eyelids and I will agree with you on both the Freemasons and the issue of whether this publication is biased. Those pictures are awesome.

Don Blankenship’s thoughts on global warming and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid

The guy is class-A hypocrite and complete scum.

If you have the patience, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_BAnx1H1Gg&feature=related

Obama is now promising a federal review of mine safety regulations and into Massey’s mine specifically.

It beggars belief because it is a load of horse shit.

The mine is closed

. Those miners are getting lots of time off work to do whatever they want to.

Here’s a comment I just read:

It’s not true.

My brother in law is absolutely Not restricted from going to funerals, and they are already getting a lot of time off, the mine is closed. Funerals are about all they do, one after another. They are letting some miners come in and work 3 day work weeks if they want to make some money above ground, but the mine is closed so its likely Massey being charitable by not laying people off. They could just as well lay everyone off until they reassign the miners. There is no mine to mine right now.

Also they wouldn’t show up in Massey uniforms, They don’t have Massey uniforms, they worked for performance coal, and their uniform is a high visibility jumper with no logos on it. Who would show up at a funeral wearing that? And miners arent shouting damn massey.

I just realized that I was pretty unclear there. The Upper Big Branch mine is closed; they had only finished removing the bodies on Tuesday. I was referring to the other Massey mines in the immediate vicinity not giving their men time off for the funerals. I’m guessing that the article was referring to the same. The mining community is small enough that most active coal miners in the region had probably worked with someone who perished in the explosion.

I guess that was my entry in the miasma of misinformation surrounding the explosion.