If you live a city named Centralia, I recommend moving with all due speed before something terrible happens. Exhibit A: Centralia, Washington, home of the Centralia Massacre of 1919. Exhibit B: Centralia, Illinois, home of the Centralia mine disaster of 1947. Exhibit C: Centralia, Missouri,...
Coal
Coal mine baron and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, owner of the Upper Big Branch mine where 29 miners were killed in an explosion in 2010, shares his thoughts on.
The Labor and Working-Class History Association has started a new blog called Labor Online. I was asked to be a contributing editor. Here's my first post, on the United Mine.
My new favorite post-election reaction goes to Robert E. Murray, CEO of Murray Energy. He sent this prayer to America out to his workers, followed by his view of the nation's future: Dear Lord: The American people have made their choice. They have decided that...
NPR, along with Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo, provide the day's most powerful and disturbing story: the return of black lung disease to coal miners. Despite the Federal Coal Mine.
Jay Rockefeller deserves major kudos for finally calling out the coal industry for lying to workers and the state that the EPA and environmentalists are costing coal jobs: This EPA.
Eric Lipton's feature on the decline of coal in Kentucky is interesting, though flawed. He tells a heartbreaking story for these coal miners, helping us understand just how deeply people in eastern Kentucky believe in coal. Even if other economic opportunities appeared in the region,...
A pro-coal group placed an ad on Craig's List, offering people $50 to wear a pro-coal t-shirt at a regulatory meeting in Illinois.
I guess every day is more or less the same in coal industry. What does such a day include? First, they kill a worker. Second, they bilk the American taxpayers,.
On this date 92 years ago, the Matewan Massacre took place in the small town of Matewan, West Virginia. In January 1920, the United Mine Workers of America had a new president: John L. Lewis. Lewis, who would become one of the most powerful labor...
We don't discuss specific activist campaigns much here and I need to do a better job of it. I'm particularly interested in smaller movements that are doing amazing work to.
A couple of weeks ago, I slammed United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts for attacking the Environmental Protection Agency. I have a piece up at Alternet exploring this issue in.