Blood for Money

The greed of man knows no bounds, April was one of the bloodiest months that labor had seen for some time. Twenty nine miners dead at the Massey Upper Big Branch mine after an explosion on April 5th 2010. Eleven oil rig workers dead after the explosion on Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on the night of April 20th 2010. Those are the two major accidents that have been on the front page of papers all over the country. Seven deaths were not on the national stage; one on April 19th the day before the Deepwater explosion, a worker was killed in a crane accident in Port Arthur, Texas. Six other deaths in an explosion and fire on April 2nd 2010, at a refinery in Washington State. The death count for April is forty seven... When will Industry prize the safety of others over production and profit?

One man personifies greed and corruption in our modern industrial times; his name...Don Blankenship. He is the face of the modern "fat cat", he cares not for working families, only about how much dirty money he can make for himself and his shareholders. In 2009, he was the highest paid executive in the Mining Industry, totaling 27.2 million. Massey is only the sixth largest mining company in the U.S., yet Blankenship is the highest paid executive industry wide...interesting. This man has a reputation for a resistance to spend money, production supersedes all safety measures in this man's eyes. He has been known to personally go into mines to coerce workers into abandoning Union organizing efforts. In 2005, Blankenship wrote a memo stating that coal production was more important than taking the time constructing support beams and ventilation shafts. In 2009, at an anti-union rally on Labor day of all days, Blankenship railed against federal and state authorities for trying to improve health and safety conditions in the mining industry. What kind of human being thinks like this???

He is a terrible excuse for a human being, in 2004 Blankenship created a tax-deductible group called "And for the Sake of the Kids" which ran ads against WV State Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw. These ads attacked McGraw because he was part of a 3-2 majority in ruling to free a mentally disturbed child molester, who ended up working at a school. McGraw lost the election to a conservative that was sympathetic to Massey and big business. Blankenship did not create this group out of any moral obligation that's for sure. He wanted McGraw out because Judge McGraw sided with the workers, that is the reason why "And for the Sake of the Kids" was started. Don Blankenship doesn't give a rat's ass about the "kids", if he did safety would be top priority, and he would pay the people working in his mines better and would stop blocking Union organizing efforts.

Why is this man not charged with 29 counts of negligent homicide?!? His policies of skirting safety regulations for more production has destroyed 29 lives...29 families. Where is the workers' justice?!? If corporations have the same rights as individuals, then aren't their policy makers subject to the same punishments? Their blood is on his hands! If hell exists, there's a special place for Don Blankenship, one can only hope...