Miners speak on safety violations at Upper Big Branch Mine

[Ms2blackcats]

I have nothing against coal mining. Some of my best friends are West Virginia coal miners. But it is so sad that these people are paying the price for their mountaineer great great grandparents innocence in not realizing what the speculators were doing to them . Sending down what these poor people thought were just good old boys telling funny stories and admiring their farms. The mineral buyer!!! That is beyond sad. Jeez!.

[katiebear10116]

My father is the man at the end of the video wearing the Marshall hat and I couldn't be more proud of him for speaking up. His father was killed in the coal mines before I was born and the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion really hit home with him. It was really hard on him and he lost a few friends in the explosion. I have never heard him express himself so clearly before. I think he done a great job! I love you daddy!!! I will always be your little girl!!!!

[gael638]

@katiebear10116 You should be proud of him katiebear he speaks the truth. I am a coal miners daughter, I lost my bro in a mine explosion here in New Zealand last year too. In a sad twist we also lost 29 men.The saddest thing of all is that $ seems to so often come before souls in this business. Seems to be the way it's always been and sadly the way it will probably always be around the world.

[1975bocephus]

the government needs to quit trying to ban coal mining and put a little more effort out in helping the mines become safer if all the fines from MSHA were put back into coal mining we prob would have gold streetsbut when a coal mines gets violation for there outside port-o- john being dirty

[1975bocephus]

for the sorry bastard at the start of film just because your to lazzy to work in the mines you dont have to down coal mining people have a choice to work in the mines if you dont like how your being treated find a new job

[BASS01100]

The guy in the Marshall hat really puts all of this into perspective. I am a former miner and I am NOT proud of it. I am NOT proud of the way these coal operators have taken a valued way of living and working in Appalachia and have stuck their tentacles into the lifeblood of our state and have sucked it dry, abused it's people and its resources and then covered their own butts when their greed caused the deaths of innocents. The WV coal industry is evil and satan is CEO of the whole thing.

[eers2ya]

FK Don Blankenship

[1canyonguy]

@eers2ya FK up the FK

[NSCOALDRAG]

These companies have never cared they just want more coal. If they cared Black Lung would be easy to get instead they fight you over tryng to get it.

[fpyout]

if you employ adults and aren't paying them a livable wage under standard working hours (40 hrs / wk) then you shouldn't be running a business. They all should have manned up and walked out and went to the funerals. This is why you shouldn't ever dig yourself into a financial trap. Because then you become a slave to your employer.

[chadb540]

I'm a WV coal miner and proud of it. Some of the comments in this video are excellent, some are not. Unfortunately most people (those who don't know coal or the coalfields) hearing about mine safety through the media will not be able to tell the difference. Even official reports, when they come out, will likely be extremely biased, their outcomes based more on politicians agenda's than the reality of the coal mining industry.

[Manofbegging]

miners are like ants- expendable!

[Howler]

Thanks for this.

[06blueGTOGUYinwv]

These people need a voice! All these towns in wv are scab holes untill you see this huge million dollar a min coal mines. I'm a coal miner and damn it these people need a voice! Where is the UMWA? thats right paid off to stay out.

[Elin48]

@06blueGTOGUYinwv The unions can't come in until the miners make the waves to force the issue. Where's the research on how miners have brought in a union?

[cymry2008]

Brother, it wouldn't matter if you had a Union or not because the Unions have been infiltrated by corporate thugs. The democrats will not save the working man because the politicians have sold their souls to the corporations. The tactics of the soul-crushing United Fruit Company and the bloodsucking Company Stores are making a strong comeback here in the United States.

[horner1959]

This is a perfect example of the gross exploitation of real folks desperation to make a living under a ruthless Capitalist Corporation. The WV State officials and legislators should be ashamed of themselves and held additionally responsible to Blankenship for this avoidable, tragic accident. Sen Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), you call yourselves Democrats ??

[jsworld06]

This is the only footage I have seen that provides a voice to the mineworkers. The reality they describe is vastly different from the situation described by the major news networks and the Obama Administration.

[jslassahn]

"These streets should be paved in gold" given how much money the mine makes. Yet as these miners say, people will line up to take this job because conditions are so bad. Where is the gold? Massey Company profits.