This evil fucking garden gnome ONLY gets a $1.6M fine???? That's it? For murder?

[Stinky The Clown]

Y'all remember Bob Murray ... right? That evil motherfucker who ran his shoddy mines in ways that led to men dying needlessly? The guy who played peacock for teevee while six men were dying an agonizing death in his illegal mine?

He gets a shitty little one point six million dollar fine. That's walkin' around money for this rich son of a bitch.



Utah: Fine in Mine Collapse
Article Tools Sponsored By
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 25, 2008

The operator of a collapsed Utah mine violated safety protocols by cutting coal pillars that should have been left standing to prevent cave-ins, federal regulators said. The officials said a subsidiary of the company, the Murray Energy Corporation, based in Ohio, had undermined other pillars by excavating coal from tunnel floors. They also faulted the company’s engineering firm, Agapito Associates Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo., for conducting a flawed evaluation of mining dangers. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is fining Murray Energy affiliate Genwal Resources Inc. $1.6 million and Agapito $220,000 for the disaster, said Richard Stickler, the agency’s chief. The Aug. 6 collapse trapped six miners whose bodies were never recovered. Three others were killed during a rescue attempt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/us/25brfs-FINEINMINECO_BRF.html?ref=us

[Hissyspit]

1. There HAVE to be civil suits, surely...

[tularetom]

2. It won't bring the guys back but you gotta hope the civiil suits bankrupt the POS

There has to be a boxcar full of lawyers heading for Utah right now that culpability has been determined.

Personally I'd tie him up and leave him in one of his death trap mines for a month or so after taking all his dough.

[Mopar151]

3. Sadly

This may be a case where Workmen's Compensation laws shield the Co. from much liability.

[stickymoose]

4. Every single death inside a mine

...in the last ten years in the US has been in a non-union mine.

Remember the judge who sentenced the slumlord to live in his own building for six months? Murray should be sentenced to work inside one of his own mines for a year.

[Heidi]

6. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Kitty Herder]

11. I say make him work in one of his mines for life. The old-fashioned way,

with a pick-ax and shovel. NO possibility of parole. It's the least we could do that asshole.

I know and love many people who are basically sentenced to hard-labor in non-union, dangerous mines until retirement age. And they're guilty of nothing but needing to make a living.

[Jokinomx]

14. Welcome to the D.U.

I know you will enjoy your time here...

:toast:

[tbyg52]

15. Great idea. Never happen. Darn it.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Fox Mulder]

18. I'm not going to disagree with you there.

In fact, he should work in one of his mines for the rest of his pathetic life.

[Skittles]

22. yes

screw the fine; make that piece of shit work in his mine for a year - absolutely

[SmileyRose]

5. I'll be shocked if they pay even 1/10 of that amount

it's standard practice to publish a fine amount and then later, in appeal, the amount is quietly dropped something even more insanely miniscule.

[YankeyMCC]

7. That is sickening,

contrary to the ideals and values of this nation and immoral, plain and simple.

[barbtries]

8. he should face criminal charges

and prison for the rest of his life.

[Kitty Herder]

9. I'd like to see that fucking asshole do time. I live in the county where the accident happened.

I have two uncles and a cousin who worked for Murray; one uncle worked at Crandall Canyon. Fortunately, he wasn't there at the time of the collapse.

Many people around here don't like to say anything critical of Murray Energy because our local economy is dependent on coal mines and when mines close, even death-trap mines, people lose jobs. Some people even the blame the media for the closing of the West Ridge and Tower mines because they think that if the media hadn't made such a big deal over the accident, no one would have noticed the safety conditions of the those other mines. It's amazing what people will put up with to protect their jobs, but it's also understandable. Most miners don't have skills that they can transfer to another job and they have to keep working to keep food on the table.

The miners themselves seldom blow the whistle on unsafe mining conditions. Their livelihoods are on the line. So it is up to MSHA to be absolutely diligent in ensuring that mines are as safe as they can be. People like Robert Murry certainly won't regulate themselves, despite what the no-regulation, free-market types would have us believe. We, the public, must insist on stringent safety regulations of all industries, and especially the extremely dangerous ones like mining. We have to hold criminals like Murray accountable. This little fine isn't enough.

On a side note: I was recently talking to my cousin, who was one of those who took Murray up on the offer of a job in Illinois at another mine after the closures here. He's now back home and working for different mining company. He was one of those who blamed the media for the closing of the other mines. (Much as I love him, I have to admit that he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.) Now that he's working for someone else, he tells how horrible Murray Energy was and how different things are where he works now. One thing struck me as a remarkably petty instance of corporate greed. My cousin said of his new employer, "Why, they even give us paid lunch breaks and they have a microwave in the break room so we can cook our food." What kind of assholes won't even provide their workers with a microwave? That's so damned petty. I know that's a tiny thing compared to the safety violations that killed nine miners, but it really struck me as typical of Murray's lack of concern for the miners who put their lives on the line to enrich him.

Edited to add: Another thing that I think is vital is providing miners who have been put out of work because their mines closed with job training or early retirement, depending on their age. Our local mines are running out of coal, and so many of them will be closing. It's when they start to run low that the mining companies do dangerous things like retreat mining to eke out what's left.

[madokie]

10. Actually he should be stretching a rope early some morning

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Piking his head would be okay with me, too.

[crikkett]

12. Next week he'll be named as McCain's labor advisor. /Nt

[malaise]

13. Sickening indeed

Stickler should have been jailed with Murray. I remember the coverage very well. They both lied.

[lonestarnot]

17. And how bout the miners, will they ever dig for that motherfucker again?

[Stinky The Clown]

19. Tragically, they probably will

People don't go into his mines because they love him. They go in for money. And if his is the only mine that's hiring, he'll get people to work for him.

Tragic, but true.

[lonestarnot]

20. That's what kills the whole injustice of the whole matter.

No one should ever work for him again.

[samsingh]

21. another travesty in the bush times among a growing number of them

too many to fathom.