12 Dead Miners: Who's Responsible?

marjorie says...

The working people in this country deserve a lot better than what they're getting, not only from the Bush administration but from the entire American population that seems happy to let organized labor go to hell in a handbasket.

Sure, let's bash on the Republican party for being the heinous group of people that they are when it comes to worker's rights and safety. But, I really can't go there too much because the flip side to that is always that the Democrats are somehow all about labor. And they aren't. The Democrats have let labor go on a long downward spiral, just like they've sold out the rest of the left. And the American public has for the most part bought into anti-labor rhetoric, Democrat and Republican alike. And this is what you get: 12 Dead Miners.

It WASN'T just an accident.

It was the outcome of standard operating practice across the board in a capitalist system: companies weigh the costs (which includes injury, even death, to workers) against the benefits of any particular action, such as, say, complying with safety regulations. Skate that thin edge, do just barely enough if you have to...and don't do anything if the fines aren't much, and aren't enforced anyway.

Illegal to bust a union organizing drive, to fire activist workers who want to start a union? Well, let's weigh the paltry costs we *might* incur in back pay and fines against the benefit of keeping out a union...hmmm. RIGHT TO ORGANIZE??? Who cares about rights, unless we *have* to? If you don't believe this, go talk to any labor attorney who routinely works on these cases.

So now we're going to get a Senate hearing. Well, FINE. The question is, what are the results going to be? What's the American public going to demand?

For starters, greatly increased fines with proper enforcement for labor violations would be good. Then we all need to realize that we are losing an incredible amount when we buy into this notion that "labor had it's day but isn't necessary any longer." Labor is necessary, and the right to organize has to not only be legally enforced--it has to be supported by all of us, in the street if necessary. The next time you hear of a strike or a protest or a union drive--just go on down and show your support. Because, really, we're all implicated in the deaths of those miners if we won't do what we can to ensure that those with the most dangerous, the most onerous, and the most menial jobs have unions.

The photo above of a man at a vigil in West Virginia came from the Seattle Times.