Massey memo causes concern

EDITOR

A leaked Massey Energy memo is creating a stir in the coal mining community.

The internal memo, dated Oct. 19, 2005, was sent from Massey CEO and President Don Blankenship to all of the company's deep mine superintendents.

It states, “If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e. - build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever) you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills.”

Some miners say they believe the memo illustrates a common complaint - that the industry focuses too much on profit.

“Safety should come first, before the first lump of coal,” says Irvin Smith of McCarr, a retired miner, who was especially bothered by the reference to building overcasts.

“Anybody that's worked underground knows that you have overcasts built to have the proper air,” Smith said. “That's a very serious safety issue.”

But company officials say they addressed the miners' concerns with a follow-up memo, sent a week later. While they would not comment directly on the first memo yesterday, they did release a copy of the second memo, dated Oct. 26.

The second memo was also sent from Don Blankenship and addressed to all deep mine superintendents, and begins with a statement that safety is the company's first responsibility.

“Last week I sent each of you a memo on running coal. Some of you may have interpreted that memo to imply that safety and S-1 are secondary. I would question the membership of anyone who thought that I consider safety to be a secondary responsibility,” Blankenship states. S-1 refers to a company initiative to put into place safety measures that go beyond industry standards.

“The point is that each of you is responsible for coal producing sections, and our goal is to keep them running coal. If you have construction jobs at your mine that need to be done to keep it safe or productive, make every effort to do those jobs without taking members and equipment from the coal producing sections that pay the bills,” the memo states.

The first memo concerned officials at the United Mine Workers of America, who recently received a copy, said spokesman Phil Smith.

“The industry needs to look out for the safety of the miners,” he said.

The UMWA has publicly criticized Massey's safety record dozens of times over the years, at times calling for federal and state reviews of the company's health and safety records.

Lexington attorney Tony Oppegard, who formerly prosecuted mine safety cases, agreed that safety should be a top priority for all coal companies, although not addressing the memo directly.

“At most mines, companies place a higher priority on production than on safety,” he said.

“We all want to see the coal industry do well,” Oppegard said.

“It's been proven for decades that a safe mine is a productive mine.”

It is the second time this month that a Massey document has gotten a negative response from coal miners.

In early February, a document distributed to the state mining board by Sidney Coal Co. President Charlie Bearse was made public. Sidney is a subsidiary of Massey Energy.

Coal miners were outraged by the text of the document, a portion of which stated “It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the Eastern Kentucky worker has declined from where it once was. Attitudes have changed among the existing work force, which effects attendance, drug use, and ultimately, productivity.”

In a follow-up letter, Bearse said he could have chosen better words and said he is “very proud of the work ethic of the coal miner.”

According to the company's Web site, Massey Energy is the fourth-largest producer of coal in the United States by revenue and the largest producer of high-quality, low sulfur coal in Central Appalachia, with 19 mining complexes in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.

Editor Rachel C. Stanley can be reached via e-mail at rstanley@news-expressky.com.