“From my experience as a coal miner, I know that as long as you are healthy and productive, you’re OK, but once you’re broken, you’re tossed aside, and a new replacement “tool” is hired. You have no more value to those corporations than does the dust you are buried in.” — Douglas Hitt
HOT SPRINGS, AK — In 34 years underground, I had three very close calls. First, I was at American Coal, and we were moving equipment. As I prepared to unhook the cable, the rope broke. All the tension in that rope and the hook securing the equipment came flying into me. It was like the hand of God smacking me—it sent me flying through the air, shattering a bone in my finger. My second close call came when I was standing by machine controls. A 4×5 foot, 2-inch thick rock, fell on me. It broke my hardhat, gave me a central disk bulge, and cut my right arm to the bone. The third close call, which put me on disability, happened in Arkansas as a shuttle car operator. I secured the ventilation curtain. As I was bent over, a 500-pound rock struck me and broke my back in five places. It bruised my heart, formed a blood clot in my lungs, and crushed my ankle. The coal on the mine floor trapped me face down. I yelled for help. When the rock hit me, the cartilage where the ribs connect to the sternum was fragmented. At 2 miles underground, co-workers assisted me. When I rolled over, the pain was like fire. That mine later shut down. I had difficulty getting re-hired. When I finally got back in the mines, I couldn’t do the work. I came home and my legs were swollen and my back was killing me. My doctor told me my mining career was over.
Years ago, a study found that after coal is mined, if rock dust is applied over it, the danger of explosions is reduced. There is a lot of dust in the air from the process. You can’t come out of the coal mines and not have health issues. Even with water, dust suppression equipment, and air scrubbers on machines, you still breathe in a lot of dust and silica.
There are injuries in every mine. We work understanding the dangers. But our benefits are guaranteed—lifetime medical, pensions, and security of knowing that if we survive, we will have secure retirements, and our families will be cared for. Those securities are paid for with our blood, sweat and dedication. Today, our guarantor (the US government) is working to abandon their promise to us.
If we want to continue to inhabit the Earth, we must invest in clean alternative energy sources. The problem is that all major coal companies invest millions and billions of lobbying dollars to a political structure run by a ruling elite. Corporations only care about their investors getting large returns on their “investments.”
My sons won’t have the quality of life I had because opportunities I had no longer exist, and clean energy opportunities are opposed by dirty energy stockholders. From my experience as a coal miner, I know that as long as you are healthy and productive, you’re OK, but once you’re broken, you’re tossed aside, and a new replacement “tool” is hired. You have no more value to those corporations than does the dust you are buried in.
We must make some fundamental changes. We can’t have a society of extremely wealthy and extremely poor. People need a quality of life from cradle to grave that is satisfying and can provide opportunities for secure futures for ourselves and our families. Corporations need to contribute to the societal structure that feeds their wallets.
A couple of stories from my life. Nothing so severe or intense. What is reported in true in every factory, every field, every place of work. In Albuquerque I worked in factory sewing jeans and coats. We were cautioned that we would face immediate dismissal if blood dripped on the fabric. Our quality control person, a young woman, pricked her finger on a needle and blamed the sewing machine operator who was immediately fired. Capitalism is ugly to the core. When I reported to work at Bethlehem Steel, a man told us about our benefits. A woman asked what happens if we are hurt during probation period. He didn’t miss a beat: You’ll be fired, he said.