Miners union blames U.S. in 2001 blast
Citing improper reporting by U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) of safety violations by the Jim Walter Resources corporation, the United Mine Workers of America yesterday accused the agency of failing to prevent the deaths of thirteen miners in the fall of 2001. The UMW report found that MSHA inspectors had recorded major hazards at the company's Number 5 Mine in Brookwood, AL as threatening only one worker---despite the large number of workers whose lives were put at risk by these violations---resulting in low fines that encouraged the company to continue violating safety laws with impunity. The accusations by the miners union comes only days after the financially strapped and increasingly criticized MSHA issued a report admitting that the agency's ineffective monitoring of a Kentucky mining operation that was involved in an environmental disaster in 2000.
See "Miners union blames U.S. in 2001 blast", DAVID JACKSON, Chicago Tribune, January 22, 2003