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Via RLMiller, Massey Energy has placed an ad on Craigs List for a new CEO to replace videogame villain Don Blankenship:
Massey Energy seeks a new Chief Executive Officer to carry on its important work destroying the environment and jeopardizing the health and safety of its employees. This position will oversee all Massey Energy operations (but don't worry - stringent or really any oversight is not a corporate priority).
Key responsibilities:
-Ducking responsibility for grave accidents and enthusiastically (and with a straight face) shifting the blame to government agencies created to prevent such incidents.
-Denying climate change, hating the environment and hating anyone who might enjoy the environment.
-Trading campaign cash for congressional favor.
-Threatening members of the media.
-Personally persuading workers to abandon union organizing.
Other qualities of a successful candidate:
-Inattention to detail.
-A really, really, really short fuse.
-Love of vacationing with judicial and political figures responsible for decisions/rulings regarding Massey.
-Ability to whine in high stress work environments, despite media criticism.
-General flagrant disregard for miner safety a plus.
Outside of the purview of the position:
Addressing safety violations (The Upper Big Branch mine has been cited for 1,342 safety violations since 2005 whatevs.)
-Reporting accidents (Massey Energy did not report more than 20 accidents at the explosive mine for two years before the explosion.)
Must be comfortable in office dress code, camouflage.
Salary is $17.8 million, the highest in the coal industry, and can be expected to double from one calendar year to the next. Bonuses frequently awarded for absolutely no reason at all.
This is a full time permanent position and will not be eliminated like other Massey Energy jobs as the company increases reliance on mountaintop removal coal mining, which in addition to destroying West Virginian's livelihoods and communities, has the added benefit of destroying mountains, valleys and waterways.
(For more information about the coal industry visit here)
The good news is Don Blankenship may finally be on his way to Federal Court.
The bad news... it's for the wrong reason.
The Charleston Daily Mail's Ry Rivard reports that Massey Energy is suing the U.S. Mine Health and Safety Administration (MSHA) for allegedly violating due process rights because they feel there is not an adequate process to challenge MSHA decisions.
The suit does not mention the Upper Big Branch (UBB) disaster specifically, but references issues related to mine ventilation, which are at the forefront of the ongoing UBB investigation.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. It seems like Massey is using the courts as part of its public relations strategy and attempting to shift the debate from their culpability to some complexities about regulations.
It reminds me of the advice my departed grandfather used to offer, "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."
It's clear from his actions that Massey CEO Don Blankenship doesn't care about the future of West Virginia, but a business expert doesn't think he's very good for Massey's corporate future either.
What is most striking about the leadership style of Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy, is his consistency. Years ago, Blankenship made statements that not only have come back to haunt him, they have cemented him as the "Anti-CSO."
By CSO, I mean Corporate Sustainability Officer. As I explained in my last post, part of the CEO's job is ensuring that everything a company does is sustainable. He must consider the positive and negative consequences of the company's actions, outside its normal business routines. That includes disastrous mine accidents that could result in devastating loss to families and communities, and environmental nightmares like the Gulf oil spill. Inherently, the job of CSO involves an appreciation of the importance of long-term planning.
snip
Blankenship represents the opposite of what an ideal CSO needs to be: visionary, supportive, and someone who understands that there is a direct connection between the health and safety of workers and the health and stability of company finances. Blankenship will be forced to understand that connection. In particular, in the area of legal fees, he will pay for his company's tarnished reputation and lousy employee retention. He will also have to live with the guilt of presiding over a company that employed 29 souls no longer on this earth.
Blankenship did not change after the 2006 Aracoma mine fire killed his workers. There's no reason to expect he will experience any sense of guilt over the latest deaths. To Blankenship, the deaths are just part of the cost of his doing business.
BECKLEY - Miners and families from the Upper Big Branch Mine on Monday described the Massey Energy operation as "a ticking time bomb," where safety problems were ignored and workers feared losing their jobs if they complained.
"I felt like I was working for the Gestapo at times," said continuous miner operator Stanley Stewart, who was on his way into Upper Big Branch when the April 5 explosion occurred.
snip
Stewart was among the witnesses this morning in Beckley at a field hearing of the House Committee on Education and Labor, which is investigating mine safety problems and the death of 29 workers at Upper Big Branch.
Much of the testimony is damning.
Gary Quarles, the father of fallen miner Gary Wayne Quarles, said he has also worked at Massey mines and that the company routinely fixes safety problems only when workers underground are tipped off ahead of time that federal Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors are on their way.
"MSHA inspections at Massey did little to protect miners," Quarles said. "We absolutely looked to MSHA for leadership, particularly on safety issues, but MSHA has let us down many times."
A full carload of Eastern Panhandle residents made our way to Richmond yesterday, veeerrrry early in the morning, to join the UMWA's demonstration against Massey Energy and its criminal CEO, Don Blankenship.
It would be fair to call the six of us environmentalists, so it was a case of strange bedfellows - we are all opponents of the PATH power line, in part because it would lock in coal for the next 50 or 60 years, yet here we were, arm in arm with coal miners, chanting "Don must go!" and "We are - UNION" as loudly as everyone else.
It was just a miserable day, weather-wise, very cold and windy, with a few sputters of rain. We assembled in Monroe Park, about five blocks from the Jefferson Hotel, and listened to UMWA speakers, highlighted by Cecil Roberts (who apologized for his incipient laryngitis, but didn't let it stop him from a real stemwinder of a speech).
Right on time at 8:30, Roberts and other union leaders picked up a banner and led the crowd to the sidewalk opposite the Jefferson Hotel. There was a pretty sizeable police presence, including cops on horseback.
We had a pretty sizeable crowd of our own. I saw several big tour buses that carried miners and supporters from far away - there were folks from Wheeling and Huntington and Beckley, not to mention Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana (and that's just based on the folks I directly talked with). I heard crowd estimates of between 2,000 and 3,000 people, and I'd say that was about right.
The troops in an army never quite know what's going on, I've read - their horizon is pretty much limited to whichever battlefield they're on. In the same way, we never knew quite what was happening inside the hotel. We simply stood on the sidewalk for almost three hours and chanted.
It wasn't until I got home last night and looked at news coverage (more on that in a minute) that I learned about the two activists that managed to get inside the hotel and unfurl the banner demanding that Blankenship be held accountable. Bravo!
There were reporters everywhere. I saw TV trucks from affiliates in Richmond, Charleston and Washington, and there appeared to be a dozen print reporters walking around and interviewing folks.
I mention this because I am pretty disappointed at the overall coverage. There was no mention of it on at least two of the three networks' news broadcasts last night, nothing on any of the MSNBC talking heads' shows (Ed, where was your outrage?), nothing on the hour of NPR we listened to on the way home.
I realize that between the ongoing oil-gush crisis in the Gulf and hot primary races there was plenty of news for them to cover. But I was afraid of this - all the anger at Massey around the country after 29 miners DIED has been dissipated. The general public's (and media's) short attention span hurts.
I'll update this later today when I get pictures from our "official" photographer (and presuming I can figure out how to embed them).
Its been over a month since the Upper Big Branch Mine, a Massey Energy owned and operated mine, faced a disaster due to a methane related explosion that took 29 miners lives. It was a dark day for the state of West Virginia, the coal industry, and the entire country. To West Virginians, and even those not from the state, these fallen miners will be in our hearts forever.
Don Blankenship is the current Chairman, CEO, and head right-wing gun-toting thug in charge of Massey Energy. Massey is currently the 6th largest coal company in the United States by production. Blankenship, to most people, is seen as cold, dark, and very mysterious. If you need further convincing, watch this ABC News video of one of their correspondents attempting to evoke an interview from Blankenship. The video shows the ABC News rep wanting to ask Blankenship about pictures published in the New York Times of him with Former WV State Supreme Court Judge and Current Republican nominee for WV 3rd Congressional District Eliot "Spike" Maynard. Maynard was elected to the Supreme Court in WV.
Several news outlets have begun to report that Don Blankenship will testify this Thursday before the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committee regarding the April 5, 2010 mine explosion in Raleigh County, West Virginia .
Mine blast: Don Blankenship, the head of Massey Energy Co., testifies before a Senate panel investigating the explosion that killed 29 workers at his company's coal mine in West Virginia.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle's SF Gate
Blankenship, 60, plans to appear before the Labor and Health and Human Services subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on May 20 in Washington, his first appearance before Congress since the explosion.
Massey said last month that it expects a second-quarter charge of as much as $212 million for the accident, more than twice its 2009 earnings.
The costs will include $80 million to $150 million for benefits for families of the miners, rescue and recovery efforts, insurance deductibles, legal and other contingencies, Massey said. The value of the damaged equipment, development and mineral rights is an additional $62 million.
Source: Businessweek.com
With the pieces still being picked up in rural West Virginia, Blankenship has a slew of problems on his hands. Massey Energy has seen its stock slump since the disaster (big shocker there) and he is constantly being questioned about the incident and his lack of care for safety violations and hazardous working conditions. It has seen a -21.7% change YTD with their stocks recently plummeting 10% after a possibility of a criminal investigation was mentioned, and 40% since the disaster.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Shares of Massey Energy plunged about 10% Monday after a report surfaced over the weekend indicated the coal mining company may face a criminal investigation.
Federal prosecutors are investigating possible "willful criminal activity" by "directors, officers and agents" of Massey subsidiary Performance Coal at the Upper Big Branch coal mine where an explosion killed 29 workers last month, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
A Bloomberg report on Monday claimed that some large Massey shareholders will seek to block the re-election of three company board members at the meeting.
Another report by the Wall Street Journal on Monday said a congressional committee will vote on Wednesday on whether to give the House Education and Labor Committee deposition power to call witnesses in for questioning on the case.
Massey shares have fallen about 40% since the mine explosion on April 5.
Source: CNN Money
More interesting news for Massey Energy, in what seems to be an effort to obtain transparency in lieu of shady business, as they have now declared that they will declassify their board of directors. This according to the Wall Street Journal, the board is proposing to introduce the idea to shareholders etc. and potentially even make the process more democratic.
Massey Energy Co. said its board plans to propose that directors stand for election every year for one-year terms.
Chairman and Chief Executive Don Blankenship and lead independent director Admiral Bobby R. Inman said the move to declassify the board of the coal producer was a result of stockholder input and the board's ongoing review of Massey's corporate governance policies.
A classified board, where classes of directors generally are elected for three-year terms and only a portion of the directors stands for election each year, is harder to dislodge through the shareholder meeting process.
The board plans to hold a special shareholder meeting in the next three to six months where it will propose that stockholders approve declassification.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Blankenship has seen his fair share of controversy, as I have detailed in several previous blogs in wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, and this proves there isn't an end in sight. Blankenship, amidst numerous calls to step down and many claims of injustice and fraud, refuses to forgo his position as CEO of Massey. Its hard to tell whether this is simply Blanky trying to play a game and manipulate his business further, saving his butt from criminal allegations, or just plain stubbornness. My personal opinion? He needs to step down. Futher even, he needs to be criminally indicted. Too often, CEO fat cats like Blank are left alone to ravage whatever gets in their way in the holy name of money.
Massey Energy chief executive Don Blankenship, whose Richmond-based company is under investigation after a deadly explosion at its Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, said he has no plans to resign.
"Whatever happened at UBB is something that needs to be figured out, but it's not the result of my management style," Blankenship, 60, said in an interview.
From The Washington Post, as reported by Bloomberg
An end is not in sight for this ongoing Blankenship conundrum, which can be seen as good news and bad news. I want resolution. I hope that one day this man will receive the proper justice brought to him, not on a silver platter, but closer to a penitentiary meal tray.
He doesn't represent the values and culture of Appalachia, he represents the coal industry and corporate greed. I for one will not stand for this. The question still remains, will the people of Congress and those in higher powers finally grow a pair and do something about corrupt and greedy tycoons like Blankenship? Or will they let this case slither away like a cunning snake, deep into the elusive tall grass it will await yet another prey who is unbeknownst to their presence.
As I know from personal experience, no work place can be made entirely safe, particularly with heavy equipment involved and the details on this latest death are not in yet.
The only thing we can do as a people is to make work places as safe as possible. That is something that the federal and state governments, the workers and the owners should all be in agreement on.
But now it appears that Massey officials are using intimidation to silence people with information about the Upper Big Branch disaster.
Alarmed by reports that Massey Energy officials are intimidating miners and their families, the Department of Labor announced today that it is launching a "supplemental" investigation into last month's Upper Big Branch mine disaster -- in which witnesses can remain anonymous.
The department's Mine Safety and Health Administration said in a statement that "Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis called for this additional investigation group to provide a safe, confidential venue for the general public, family members of the victims and miners to speak freely to MSHA investigators about the mine explosion without fear of retaliation or the need to reveal their identity."
"We are clearly concerned about fear and intimidation by the company," an administration official told HuffPost.
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but trying to silence witnesses and critics is a sure sign that many people in this state who have committed illegal acts or turned a blind eye to violations have much to fear themselves.
There was quite a bit of discussion last week about the NPR report on the Massey Energy FBI probe stemming from the Upper Big Branch mining incident. There was no question (or controversy) as to there being an FBI investigation, the question is whether or not it extended to possible bribery of federal regulators.
Bloomberg published this original reporting by Chris Stratton and Margaret Cronin Fisk yesterday that goes one step further than the earlier NPR story (emphasis mine):
Massey Energy Co., dealing with the death of 29 miners at one of its West Virginia coal mines, is being investigated by the FBI for possible bribery of state and federal inspectors, a person familiar with the probe said.
An April 5 explosion at the Richmond, Virginia-based company's Upper Big Branch Mine resulted in the deaths and sparked the investigation by the bureau, a second person familiar with the matter said April 30, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
At least two dozen Massey employees, federal and state officials and mine union members have been interviewed by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the first person familiar with the investigation said.
The mine and its operators could be held criminally responsible for the explosion if there were any "overt acts," such as falsification of inspection documents or evidence of tampering with monitors and recording devices, said Bruce Stanley, a Pittsburgh attorney who represents the widows of two miners killed in an earlier incident.
"It's too early to provide any comment at this point," Massey spokesman Roger Hendriksen said in a phone interview today.
Should the FBI interview turn up evidence of criminal conduct, the matter would be referred to the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of West Virginia, the first person said.
With an increasing number of government agencies being implicated in this mining incident, there's even more good reason for the investigation to occur out in the open. As Ken Ward, Jr. recently posted on Facebook:
Still no word from MSHA on making Massey mine disaster investigation public. Call 202-693-9400 to demand transparency.
In past investigations of disasters and even single mining deaths, MSHA allowed coal company lawyers to sit in on interviews with miners, mine managers and government inspectors. So the company knew what was being asked and answered - some believe the company lawyers intimidate witnesses by their very presence. Other times, government ... See Moreinvestigators conveniently skipped questions that probed their own failures of enforcement.
Congress gave MSHA authority to conduct investigations as public hearings, but the agency seldom does so.
Two UBB widows have asked for a public hearing, as has the UMWA and a collection of news organizations, including the Gazette.
A public hearing also gives MSHA subpoena power, something it doesn't otherwise have, to compel people to answer questions.
Wrongful death suits will give families power to get some answers through discovery. But a public hearing is the only way the public will ever find out what really happened.
The Charleston Daily Mail reports on Blankenship's appearance on WOWK's wingnutty "Decision Makers" program:
CHARLESTON, W.Va.--Massey CEO Don Blankenship said in a weekend TV interview that "evil people" have ascended the ranks of power in the United States and implied Sen. Jay Rockefeller was among them.
In an appearance on the WBOY and WOWK show "Decision Makers," Blankenship was asked about the impact of Rockefeller's comments that Massey was a "rogue" operator.
Rockefeller, D-W.Va., was being critical of Massey and Blankenship following the explosion last month at the company's Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29.
In the past, Rockefeller has gone out of his way to regurgitate the War on CoalTM hysteria and attack the Obama administration's environmental protection efforts.
It appears it did little good for him.
A mild defense of the EPA got Rep. Rahall's face printed on Massey-distributed "Nick Joe is anti-coal" signs. Accurately stating the case on mine safety has made Rockefeller fall out of favor with Blankenship.
It's time for Rockefeller and other officials to realize Blankenship will never be satisified with anything less than 100% obedience. The constant attempts to pander to him are just embarrassing.
Sources familiar with the investigation say the FBI is looking into possible bribery of officials of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that inspects and regulates mining. The sources say FBI agents are also exploring potential criminal negligence on the part of Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch mine.
On May 18th, Massey Energy will be holding its annual shareholders meeting at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.
A Facebook group has been set up to organize a demonstration that day, beginning at 12 noon. To join the Facebook group, search for "Massey annual stockholders protest."
I've got several friends together and we're going to drive down that day and join the demonstration. It would be awesome if we could get a crowd!
Let's drive home the message - in front of national media - that the clock has run out on Don "Robber Baron" Blankenship and his ongoing criminal enterprise.
This comes from ThinkProgress. This is about the worst thing you could read. What kind of pure scum would even go this far? It is one thing for the previous events to occur, you'd think that there would be some soul left in Blankenship and Massey to allow the poor miners time to grieve and attend the funerals of their families and friends.
Massey Energy, the Virginia-based coal giant that runs the Upper Big Branch Mine, has denied time off for miners to attend their friends' funerals; has rejected makeshift memorials outside the mine site; and, in at least one case, required a worker to go on shift even though the fate of a relative - one of the victims of the April 5 disaster - remained unknown at the time, according to some family members and other sources familiar with those episodes. In short, the company might be taking heat for putting profits and efficiency above its workers, but it doesn't appear to have changed its tune in the wake of the worst mining tragedy in 40 years.
Rejecting makeshift memorials? This isn't a concentration camp, this is a place of employment. It sad that the miners who lost their lives cannot even be commemorated by their fellow miners. Not even allowing someone time off to attend the funeral of a relative is cruel and unjust.
Somedays I wonder if those who make these decisions can even feel human emotion...
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