Mine Safety: Stickler Spins Sorry State of Safety
Our mine safety campaign demanding accountability from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) over mine deaths has been quite successful. We sent 10,000 letters to Richard Stickler, Elaine’s mine safety czar, and he responded with a letter overflowing with the spin typical of Elaine’s minions.
With so much negative media attention aimed at MSHA, Richard Stickler wants to set the record straight - he has no responsibility in the continued incompetence of the agency he manages.
“The 5,000 citations that were mistakenly not assessed since 1995 amount to less than one half of one percent of the 1.34 million citations issued over that period,” said Stickler in a letter to concerned citizens.
Trying to spin the problem as somehow not being his fault, he failed to mention that 4,000 out of the 5,000 citations not assessed have been last six years since Elaine took control of the Labor Department.
“MSHA has undertaken a wide range of actions to ensure that we are administering the most effective program of mine safety and health possible for American miners…”
Is he referring to the fact that in 2006, MSHA failed to inspect 15%, or 107 of the nation’s 731 underground coal mines? Perhaps if MSHA hadn’t cut nearly 100 mine inspectors from its ranks, the mine industry wouldn’t have seen a record 62 mine deaths in 2006, the worst fatality record in five years.
In the future, it would be nice if Elaine would hire someone to protect the safety and health of America’s miners a little less like Stickler, who before heading MSHA managed mines with injury rates double the national average.
