in short:
1) "....the model of thought that says we need to go out and extend
unemployment benefits and health insurance benefits and so forth is not
I think one that is commensurate with the American spirit here," said
Representative Dick Armey of Texas, the majority leader
2) On Friday, Congress approved the bailout for the airline industry to
help it recover. The bill included a provision allowing airline
executives to keep collecting their large salaries,
3) This week, American announced it would not pay severance to the
20,000 workers it planned to let go.
NY Times Sept. 26, 2001
Unions at Airlines Assail Management for Denying Benefits
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Labor-management relations in the airline industry, rocky before Sept.
11, have grown rancorous, with unions enraged at what they say are
moves by several carriers to use the national emergency to deny pay or
benefits to workers idled as air travel stalls.
American Airlines, a unit of the AMR Corporation, said yesterday that
the airline's finances had been hurt so badly by the terrorist attacks
that
it could not afford to pay severance benefits to the thousands of
workers
that it planned to lay off.
Union officials quickly criticized American, asserting that the least
the
airline could do after Congress approved a multibillion-dollar bailout
was
to make good on its commitments to its workers.
"It's outrageous that American would ask the workers to support them
on getting this massive federal bailout and then turn around to slap the
workers in the face by failing to honor its commitments," said Edward
Wytkind, executive director of the transportation trades department of
the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Karen Watson, an American spokeswoman, insisted that the company
was honoring its contract and was merely invoking an emergency
clause that she said allowed the company to suspend certain
commitments under extreme circumstances.
"The reason for using these provisions is because of the dire financial
condition of the industry," Ms. Watson said. "We're furloughing 20,000
employees because of the 20 percent reduction in our flight schedule,
which of course occurred suddenly. Right now the issue is the survival
of the company."
Several union officials and airline workers, meanwhile, said that United
Airlines, owned by the UAL Corporation, was leaving some workers in
limbo by not calling them to work but not laying them off, either. US
Airways, they added, was citing emergency conditions to override a no-
furlough clause in certain union contracts.
Since the terror attacks, which briefly grounded all aircraft and have
left
airlines running reduced schedules of half-empty flights, the carriers
have announced plans to eliminate nearly 80,000 jobs. Delta Air Lines
has scheduled a news conference for today and it is expected to
announce more than 10,000 layoffs.
At American, Ms. Watson, the spokeswoman, declined to say how
much the airline would save by not making its severance payments;
union officials estimated that tens of millions of dollars would be
saved.
The laid-off workers generally will qualify for unemployment insurance.
American's plan to withhold severance benefits was first reported
yesterday by The Los Angeles Times.
Some union officials said that they would ask Congress to enact a law
requiring American to make good on its severance commitments as a
condition for receiving its part of the $15 billion in cash and loan
guarantees approved by Congress and signed by President Bush last
week.
Dissatisfied that the bailout bill did not provide any protections for
airline
workers, union officials also want Congress to enact an additional 52
weeks of unemployment insurance for laid-off aviation workers, above
and beyond the 26 weeks that is typically provided. And they want
Congress to guarantee at least 12 months of federally financed health
insurance for all laid-off aviation workers.
On Monday, Donald J. Carty, American's chief executive, said that he
would take no pay for the rest of the year and urged American
employees to agree to voluntary cuts in pay.
Last year, according to the airline's proxy statement, Mr. Carty earned
$772,500 in salary plus a bonus of $1,351,875.
Union officials complained that United was invoking an emergency
clause, known as force majeure, for the month of October, citing it in
telling many employees that they would have no work and no pay for at
least several weeks next month, although those workers would not be
officially laid off.
While unhappy with this development, union officials voiced less anger
at United's approach than American's, because they said United
apparently was trying to weather October with as few long-term layoffs
as possible.
Chris Brathwaite, a United spokesman, declined to discuss details of
the airline's job reductions.
Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said US
Airways had invoked an emergency clause to skirt no-furlough
provisions in the contract.
US Airways executives acknowledged that they were relying on the
emergency clause. However, US Airways, which has announced plans
to eliminate 11,000 jobs, said it would make good on its severance
obligations .
In a statement issued Monday, US Airways said, "The terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11 have had a catastrophic effect on the airline industry, and
US Airways now finds itself in the position of having to struggle for
its
very survival."
Number of Workers Out of a Job Is Continually Rising
By TERRY PRISTIN and LESLIE EATON
More than 100,000 New York City workers are likely to find themselves
unemployed, at least temporarily, as a result of the World Trade Center
disaster, according to government estimates released yesterday.
Already, 10,800 people who have asked the New York State
Department of Labor for unemployment assistance have attributed their
situation to the terrorist attack on the twin towers and its fallout
throughout the economy.
Some of the people who are out of a job - janitors, hotel cashiers,
store clerks - worked in or near the towers. Many more - waiters,
limousine drivers, flight attendants - worked far from ground zero but
are economic victims of the aftershocks like the steep drop in tourism.
And the fate of many in other occupations - printing, securities, the
garment industry - will depend on the stock market and on how
quickly the city's economy rebounds, economists and labor analysts
said.
Even before the disaster, the city's economy, once red-hot, had cooled
significantly. In August, New York City companies employed 8,200
fewer people than in July, according to the city comptroller's office,
which said it was the steepest monthly decline in five years. The
unemployment rate jumped to 5.8 percent in August; it was 5.0 percent
the month before.
"In all likelihood, the city was showing signs of recession before this
happened," said Barbara Byrne Denham, a private economist.
But the disaster will add significantly to the ranks of the unemployed.
About 75,000 people who worked in the city are likely to apply for
unemployment insurance because of the disaster, Emily S. De Rocco,
an assistant secretary of labor, said yesterday at a news conference in
Washington.
An additional 37,500 are expected to receive special unemployment
benefits under the Disaster Unemployment Assistance program that will
be available to those who worked in the five boroughs of New York City
and are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance payments.
In total, about 700,000 of the almost four million jobs in the city have
been affected in some way by the devastation at ground zero, said
Stuart Roy, a Department of Labor spokesman.
Not only have many people lost their jobs, but companies that continue
to operate have also lost everything from phone service to a week's
revenues. People who are paid on commission lost income, while some
people simply could not get to work because of transportation problems.
The new unemployment figures are based on estimates from the New
York State Department of Labor, which tried to forecast how much
federal aid the city might need. The state's unemployment insurance
fund has more than a billion dollars in it, and it can draw upon federal
help should that become necessary, Mr. Roy said.
People who qualify for unemployment insurance are eligible for as much
as $405 a week for up to six months. Those who are not eligible for
unemployment insurance - because, for example, they are self-
employed - can apply for the disaster unemployment assistance
program, which provides the same amount of money. A family in which
the breadwinner has died because of the disaster may also be eligible;
all benefits are awarded on a case-by- case basis.
Of course, some workers will find themselves in demand in the coming
months. Construction workers, for example, are very likely to be in
short
supply. Demand for security guards also appears to be rising.
But many New Yorkers worked at places that no longer exist, in jobs
that no longer exist.
Among them are 2,000 janitors, security guards, porters and window
cleaners who worked in the World Trade Center or in surrounding
buildings that were destroyed or shut down. Of these, 350 were on duty
during the attack, and 26 died.
Their union said many of these survivors may be able to find work
eventually. Last week, the union, the Building Service Workers Local
32BJ, reached an agreement that requires contractors to give these
workers first choice when new jobs become open.
"There's a strong possibility of absorbing all of these people in the
next
few months," said Bill Meyerson, a union spokesman.
Worse off, perhaps, were about 1,000 people who worked in the four
hotels in and around ground zero. Their prospects of finding new jobs
are dim, because even before the attack, the hotel business was
already reeling from a decline in business travel.
Since Sept. 11, of course, tourism has taken a nose dive. About 600
members of Local 6 of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers were laid off
before the attacks, and 1,200 more have been let go since, said John
Turchiano, a union spokesman.
Until Sept. 11, Daniel Mensah, 35, was holding down two jobs and
sending money home to Ghana for his wife and three children. At night,
he waxed and stripped floors and shampooed carpets at the Millennium
Hilton, next to the trade center. During the day, he mopped and swept
at the Muse Hotel in Midtown.
Last week, he said, Muse employees were warned to expect layoffs,
prompting Mr. Mensah's wife to urge him to move to another state. But
he said he chose to stay and take his chances. "My feeling for New
York is too great," he said.
Expecting a long dry spell, the union local and the Hotel Trades Council
have set aside $2 million in relief for the displaced workers and have
assured workers that they will get medical coverage for a year. And the
hotels have pledged to spend $5 million to help workers laid off.
Restaurants that rely heavily on tourists or are in or near the
financial
district, beyond the reach of taxis and private cars, are also cutting
back on staff. At City Hall, the name of a three-year-old restaurant on
Duane Street, Henry Archer Meer, the chef and owner, said he had
reduced his staff of 115 employees by 25, and was doing without 15 of
his 22 waiters by operating one shift instead of two.
The tourism drought has also hurt companies that transport people to
airports. "The day they destroyed the World Trade Center, they
destroyed our business," said Steven P. Ellis, the sales director of XYZ
2- Way Radio Service, a car service based in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
XYZ drivers are independent contractors, who own their Lincoln Town
Cars. Mr. Ellis said at least 25 of the 425 drivers had decided to
search
for other work.
But they are lucky compared to people like Inocencio Tecalero, 18, who
worked as a deliveryman for Candy's, a restaurant in the financial
district that will be closed for months. Mr. Tecalero, who earned $8 a
hour, is the sole support of his seven brothers and sisters in Mexico.
Some Families Doubt Sincerity of Cantor
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Maybe it was the finality of it. On Sept. 15, the bond trading firm of
Cantor Fitzgerald dropped its missing employees from the payroll.
Whether that was prudent or crass depends in large part on one's view
of Howard W. Lutnick, the chairman of the firm, which lost almost 70
percent of its New York staff in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
At first, Mr. Lutnick's gritty reputation was largely obscured by the
halo
effect of his tearful public pledge to keep the devastated firm alive so
that it could care for more than 600 families bereft by the disaster.
Now, Cantor families are starting to match those televised promises
against the details of the firm's benefits and are smudging Mr.
Lutnick's
new image with rancor and suspicion. In e-mail messages and
telephone calls, some angry relatives - in some cases, the survivors of
already disgruntled employees - are saying that Cantor's actions do
not match its chairman's words.
Asked about these complaints this week, a company spokesman said
that some relatives were simply mistaken about the benefits, or have
not given the firm time to keep its vows. Several of Mr. Lutnick's
supporters note privately that his highly visible grief - though it may
have angered some mourning relatives - has enabled him to advance
the relief effort, as when he persuaded the American Red Cross to make
grants this week to all surviving families to help meet their living
expenses.
But Cantor does not dispute the most frequently heard complaint: that
the company dropped the missing employees from its payroll on Sept.
15. True, the employees are no longer working. But some firms that lost
people in the disaster are keeping the missing employees on the payroll
until families have some other safety net in place. Some unhappy
Cantor families have argued that they expected similar treatment, in
light of Mr. Lutnick's public professions of concern.
"This was the most difficult by far of all the business decisions" the
firm
has made since the attacks, the spokesman said. "But to have done
otherwise would make it harder to restore the business that is so
important to the long-term welfare of these families."
Many relatives who were contacted the last week expressed general
satisfaction with Cantor's benefits program. But more than a half-dozen
calls and e-mail messages expressed shock that there was no
paycheck last week, since most of the Cantor employees are officially
still "missing," not dead.
The company says its insurance carrier is expediting payments under
the $100,000 life insurance policy on each employee, without requiring a
formal death certificate.
Typically, though, the largest portion of any Wall Street family's
income
is the year-end bonus, the size of which varies with the firm's
profitability
and each employee's performance and contribution. Several of Mr.
Lutnick's critics have expressed confusion and concern about how
bonuses will be distributed.
They say they have been told that the records necessary for calculating
employee bonuses were lost in the destruction of the firm's office, and
they doubt the lost employees will ultimately get them.
"I hope to God I'm wrong, but there's no guarantee," said the brother of
a
missing trader, who said he feared retribution against his sister-in-law
if
his name were used. "What if it's just a public relations gambit?"
Wall Street bonuses are typically paid in December. Cantor's Web site,
www.cantorusa.com, reports that the firm intends to pay bonuses to the
families of lost employees and hopes to make such payments before
Jan. 1. While some documents were destroyed, the spokesman said,
"given the relatively small size of the firm, it should not be difficult
to
reconstruct records to permit the payment of bonuses at the end of the
year, as planned."
Other callers have complained that the company has, or soon will, cut
off health insurance for the families of lost workers. The company Web
site reports that Cantor will maintain fully paid health insurance for
all
surviving families for 12 months, and the spokesman confirmed that
information.
Finally, relatives of some missing Cantor partners are concerned about
money that the partners had been required to reinvest in the
partnership.
Cantor must establish the value at which it will redeem those
partnership interests, and some relatives fear that value will be
unfairly
low, even allowing for the damage the partnership has sustained.
A company spokesman declined to discuss private partnership matters,
and the Web site does not address the issue.
Cantor has reported that its partners had voted to allocate 25 percent
of
any year-end profits to the families of its lost employees, including
Mr.
Lutnick's younger brother, Gary. But this promise, too, is viewed with
some skepticism. As a missing employee's sister complained, the firm
is not legally obliged to keep it.
Some grief counselors suggested that the criticisms may partly reflect
the understandable anger of relatives whose personal bereavement has
been overwhelmed by a disaster whose scale prevents a company from
responding as it might in more normal times.
But Mr. Lutnick carries some baggage, too. A prot�g� of Cantor's
founder, B. Gerald Cantor, Mr. Lutnick once said he had gained his
mentor's confidence in part by telling Mr. Cantor things that other
executives were not telling him - a practice that did not endear him to
many executives.
When Mr. Cantor fell mortally ill in 1996, Mr. Lutnick moved quickly to
take control of the firm and managed to inflame his mentor's wife, Iris,
in
the process. An ugly courtroom battle wrapped Mr. Lutnick's image in
razor wire for months, and a few brushes with market regulators did
nothing to blunt those sharp edges.
Since the fight with Mrs. Cantor, some former employees say, the firm
has continued to pursue employment or business disputes aggressively
in court, generating some ill will among former executives.
Despite this history, many Cantor families see Mr. Lutnick in a brighter
light, praising his candid concern for them and trusting his promises.
The father-in-law of Montgomery Hord of Pelham, N.Y., a missing
partner, said he understood that the firm "had to quickly retain some
people to act when they still don't have all the answers." He added, "On
a scale of one to 10, I put them in the upper registers."
Patrick McCarthy, a lawyer whose brother Robert perished, agreed.
"Cantor has been great so far," Mr. McCarthy said. He said he
understood the firm's decision to suspend the paychecks of missing
workers.
"When the accountants come in, what can they say?"
House Republican Leaders Balk at Any
Help for Laid-Off Workers
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 - House Republican leaders balked today at
the idea of helping thousands of laid-off workers by extending
unemployment compensation and health care benefits despite a
commitment last Friday by Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to consider such
legislation.
"The model of thought there, and quite frankly, the model of thought
that
says we need to go out and extend unemployment benefits and health
insurance benefits and so forth is not I think one that is commensurate
with the American spirit here," said Representative Dick Armey of
Texas, the majority leader. He said a higher priority was to pass an
economic stimulus bill.
Representative Tom DeLay, the majority whip from Texas, seemed no
more enthusiastic about the Democratic plan, which was first proposed
last Friday when Congress approved the $15 billion airline industry
bailout. The idea was rejected by Republicans in a late-night
negotiation
session.
"Sometimes people jump out too quickly on an issue," Mr. DeLay said,
referring to Democrats. "They want to develop an issue."
The idea of unemployment help has generated more interest from the
White House, at least for now. President Bush plans to travel to
Chicago on Thursday to thank airline workers, and some are hoping he
will offer them some sort of assistance. At a breakfast meeting today,
Democratic leaders said Mr. Bush told them he had directed the
Department of Labor to review the administration's options.
"He acknowledged this was a problem," said Representative Richard A.
Gephardt, the Democratic leader, who today introduced one of several
bills to help laid-off workers.
John Feehery, Mr. Hastert's spokesman, reiterated that the speaker
planned to keep his commitment to Democrats and "move forward on
this in a bipartisan way." But, he added: "I'm not sure where it's going
to
go. I don't think a decision has been made."
As for the reluctance among some Republican leaders to move a
workers' bill, Mr. Gephardt said they would face the same pressures as
Democrats when laid-off employees ask them, "What about us?"
"I'm not sure in the end they won't have to move something," he said.
Immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government ordered
all airplanes grounded, a decision that left the airline industry in
financial
disarray. Since then, the airlines and aerospace companies have said
they will lay off more than 100,000 workers. Ronald Reagan National
Airport, adjacent to Washington, has been shuttered since the attack,
putting thousands of airport workers there in limbo.
On Friday, Congress approved the bailout for the airline industry to
help
it recover. The bill included a provision allowing airline executives to
keep collecting their large salaries, which angered Democrats. On
Monday, the chairman of American Airlines, Donald J. Carty, said he
would forgo his salary for the rest of the year and asked other
executives and nonunion workers to volunteer to take pay cuts. This
week, American announced it would not pay severance to the 20,000
workers it planned to let go.
Democrats were infuriated when Republicans refused to include a bill to
help workers as part of the initial bailout bill, and criticized their
own
leaders for agreeing to move the legislation to the floor without an
employee assistance measure.
A number of them were assuaged by a commitment made by Mr.
Hastert that Congress would consider proposals addressing the issue.
But many remained distrustful of the promise, and they now feel as if
their suspicions were warranted.
"That's why we wanted to do it last week," said Representative George
Miller of California, the senior Democrat on the House Education and
the Work Force Committee, who opposed the bailout bill. "Of course,
we got rolled. Once you give away what they want, why should they give
you what you want."
"Our leadership needs to play tougher next time," Mr. Miller added.
Hoping to put pressure on Republicans, both Mr. Gephardt and Mr.
Daschle said they planned to attach a workers' aid bill to legislation
on
aviation security. Mr. Daschle, as majority leader of the Senate, could
do that easily. The idea, though, is opposed by Senate Republican
leaders, who say it will only complicate passage of a bill that will
make
Americans feel safer on airplanes.
"We have indicated to the White House and to our Republican
colleagues that it would be very difficult for us to pass the airline
security bill without attaching some legislation that allows us to
address
the myriad of problems we're facing with unemployed workers," Mr.
Daschle said. "We addressed airline problems last week. We've got to
address employee problems very soon."
In Denver, Airline Jobs Continue to Dwindle
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
DENVER, Sept. 25 - When the planes crashed into the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, Ken Pabst was on vacation from his job as a
reservation agent for Continental Airlines (news/quote). He and the
other
members of his bluegrass band, High Plains Tradition, were at a music
festival in Winfield, Kan.
"I knew it would change the airline industry forever," Mr. Pabst said.
His premonition has proved agonizingly correct for more than 80,000
employees of the nation's airlines. Their companies, responding to a
decreasing demand for air travel, have cut the number of flights and
have
laid off employees. Even as Congress has agreed to a $15 billion bailout
of the industry, leading carriers like American and United have each
announced that 20,000 employees would be laid off.
Continental, the nation's fifth-largest carrier, said last week that it
would
cut 12,000 jobs, a number that included Mr. Pabst and the 949 other
people who worked at the airline's reservation center at what used to be
Stapleton Airport in Denver. The workers were told Thursday that the
center was closing immediately and that they would have the option of
accepting a yearlong leave of absence, retiring early or moving to
cities
where Continental has other reservation centers - Houston, Salt Lake
City or Tampa, Fla.
For many of the Continental employees who came to work that day
anticipating a routine morning, it was anything but. Many workers left
in
tears. "People were lost, thinking, `Here we go again,' " said Dottie
Bakke, a former reservation agent who recalled Continental's bankruptcy
filing in 1983.
"People had to go out on the street and look for jobs again," said Ms.
Bakke, who worked for Continental from 1968 through 1989 and throws
an annual summer party for her former colleagues.
To Mr. Pabst, who joined the airline 11 years ago as a ramp agent, it
was another sign of Continental's slow but steady disappearance from a
market it once considered a hub. In the late 1980's, more than 250
flights came and left Stapleton, which closed in 1995 when Denver
International Airport opened. On the day before the attacks, 24 flights
flew in and out of Denver International. On the day before the layoffs
were announced, the number was 13.
Like many of Continental's former employees in Denver, as well as
recently laid-off airline employees elsewhere, Mr. Pabst, who is 48,
said
he was a little bewildered. He is a Denver native, now living in Aurora,
a
suburb, who loves the area and never contemplated leaving. Now, he
said, he is not sure what he, his wife and two daughters will do.
"My wife has a good job as a mortgage banker, and she's been pretty
busy with lots of people refinancing now," he said. "She works for a
company that has offices in Tampa, Cleveland and Salt Lake City,
which are other Continental hubs. So I'm thinking about taking the leave
of absence, and we'll look into those three cities to see if there's a
fit for
us."
As for Continental, the closing of the reservation center will leave 330
jobs in the Denver area, and a company spokesman, Rahsaan Johnson,
said that if more flights are eliminated, more jobs will be lost.
The only real winner may be the city of Denver, which is turning the old
airport into a neighborhood of homes, shops and parks. Continental's
reservation center was on the second floor of an old hangar.
The airline's lease was scheduled to expire in 2003. Now empty, the
hangar could be razed soon.
"Because this was caused by such a disaster, everybody's broken-
hearted," Ms. Bakke said. "It's been a real shock and very, very sad."
Antiunion Measure Passes in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 25 (AP) - Oklahoma voters today approved a
measure that makes the state the 22nd to ban labor contracts requiring
workers to pay union dues.
With 98 percent of the vote counted, the measure was ahead with
support from 54 percent of the voters.
"I am excited for Oklahoma," said Gov. Frank Keating, a Republican
who supported the measure. "This is the first step in the liberation of
Oklahoma's economy."
Jimmy Curry, head of the Oklahoma A.F.L.-C.I.O. and an opponent of
the measure, said the labor movement would "back up and regroup."
The vote came after the most expensive election campaign in state
history, pitting business and labor interests in a rematch of a battle
37
years ago over the issue. Unions won the battle in 1964 by fewer than
25,000 votes. Until today, no state had passed such a measure since
1986.
Supporters argued that Oklahoma was losing jobs because companies
shied from states without such laws, and that workers should be
allowed to choose whether they wanted to support a union.
Opponents said requiring all workers to pay dues was fair because
federal law mandates that unions represent all workers in a union shop,
including nonmembers.
Less than 9 percent of Oklahoma workers are in jobs covered by union
contracts.
Nation's Deepest Coal Mine Now Ranks Among Deadliest
By DAVID FIRESTONE
BROOKWOOD, Ala., Sept. 25 - The low-sulfur coal coveted by power
plants exists in abundance beneath the green ridges near this central
Alabama town, but to get it, miners must take the longest elevator ride
in the country to a dark and risky office: 175 stories straight down,
past
cracks and crevices packed with highly volatile methane gas.
For all the elaborate wind tunnels and gas-collection systems that have
been pioneered here, a spark and a cave-in in the wrong place can
create a fireball of enormous intensity. Alabama miners have long
known that their jobs here were considered more dangerous than similar
jobs elsewhere in the country, and 13 of their families learned
painfully
on Sunday the precise nature of the peril underground.
When the roof fell near a battery charger in the nation's deepest mine
that afternoon, the resulting explosion killed three of six nearby
workers
instantly. The mine's operator, Jim Walter Resources, confirmed today
that nine other men who ran to their aid were killed a few minutes later
in a subsequent blast, and a thirteenth man who was rescued died of
his burns on Monday. The accident thus became the nation's deadliest
mine calamity since 1984.
Today, federal rescue officials and teams from the mine's operator were
unable for a second day to get near the section of Blue Creek Mine No.
5 where the second blast occurred. Fires are believed to be still
blazing
in the tunnel 2,100 feet below ground, and levels of methane gas were
too intense for rescuers to approach, said Kyle Parks, a spokesman for
the company.
Recovery workers began to flood the affected area with water today to
extinguish the fires, but it could be weeks or months before production
resumes and more than 400 workers can again be paid.
Miners who gathered at the local United Mine Workers union hall today
know exactly what their colleagues went through, a risk that men in this
area have taken for decades in exchange for good, steady jobs that pay
around $20 an hour.
As mining technology has become more advanced and robotic, fewer
men are needed in the tunnels, but those that remain have learned to
become very, very careful after they take their four-minute ride to the
bottom.
"It's like no other job on earth," said Aaron Bowens, 44, a third-
generation miner who has spent 15 years working beneath Brookwood,
where he lives. "I've seen miners from other places who have never been
claustrophobic in their lives walk off the job on their first day when
they
realize how deep it gets. If you thought about the danger every day, you
just couldn't go to work."
Federal inspectors are in the mines almost every day, along with state
officials and union and company safety workers making sure that
odorless methane gas is diluted with fresh air forced down from above.
In part because of its great depth, this mine is one of the gassiest in
the
country, but Jim Walter Resources has become known in the industry
as a pioneer in extracting the methane - both to be sold as natural
gas, and to make the coal mining possible.
"Jim Walter is a first-class outfit that puts a premium on safety and
getting that methane out of there," said Charles D. Haynes, a former
miner who now teaches civil and environmental engineering at the
University of Alabama in nearby Tuscaloosa. "But don't kid yourself -
it's a very hostile environment for those men."
This was the first underground fatal accident that has occurred in Mine
No. 5, though there have been three deaths since 1995 at nearby Mine
No. 4 - from electrocution, a fall and asphyxiation. In all, the company
had a higher accident rate than the industry as a whole last year,
according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, but the
state's accident rate has improved from 1996, when Alabama's mine
accident rate was far higher than the rest of the country.
That is generally attributed to improved methods for removing the
methane, which were first developed here. The mine operator spends up
to a year removing methane before the tunnels are dug, then extracts
more just ahead of the mining machine and again after the coal has
been removed. The sale of the methane as natural gas has become a
substantial part of Jim Walter's revenues.
But Dr. Haynes said the methane - the natural byproduct of the decay
of vegetable matter that also produces coal - had been compressed in
the coal for thousands of years, and was released in large, high-
pressure streams when there were cave-ins. That apparently happened
on Sunday, through a series of events that began when parts of a roof
felt near a battery charger, causing sparks that ignited released
methane.
Miners, who work in tunnels 20 feet wide by 6 feet tall, say they are
not
looking forward to resuming work near the accident site. But they know
they will, because it is their livelihood and their identity.
"It gets in your blood, and you tell yourself it won't happen to you,"
said
Sidney Atchison, who is 50 and has been a laborer in the mines for 19
years. "I mean, it's not the only dangerous job in the world. You can be
sitting in an office in New York, and look what can happen to you."
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
