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Byron Clark The Spark December 2010 – January 2011

There is a famous slogan from a banner carried by striking miners at Waihi in 1912, “If blood be the price of your cursed wealth, good god we have bought it fair”. The slogan brings up images of early twentieth century industrialism; gruelingly hard work in unsafe environments, ruthless exploitation of workers by wealthy capitalists, and accidents abounded. In light of the Pike River mine disaster, the slogan does not seem as anachronistic as it may have prior to November. Indeed, not since 1914 when 43 miners were killed in a mine explosion in Huntly has New Zealand seen a mining disaster of such magnitude. Many have questioned how this disaster could have happened in a developed country, in the year 2010. It’s not the first one however; in April 29 miners died in a gas explosion in West Virginia, USA. The Pike River tragedy has an eerie sense of deja vu for some. Lawyer Davitt McAteer, who is heading an investigation of the USA deaths, was quoted by The New Zealand Herald as saying “You can’t suggest that the mining industry is going forward into the 21st century with the rate that it’s killing people.”
As the dust settles on the West Coast, it is becoming increasingly clear that the pursuit of profit was put ahead of the safety of workers. While Pike River Coal is one of New Zealand’s largest corporations, and valued at $400 million, the company made a $54.1 million loss between July 2006 and June 2010, and was under pressure from its major shareholder, New Zealand Oil & Gas, to improve its performance. The safety standards of the mine have been condemned by experts such as Andrew Watson, the operations manager of United Kingdom Mines Rescue Operations, who told the New Zealand Herald that methane levels had to have reached 5 to 15 percent of the atmosphere for the explosion to occur. In British mines, work stops if methane levels reached just 1.25 percent, and mines are evacuated once they reach 2 percent. Watson stated that “either the warning system was inadequate, or it was not sufficiently monitored”. The most likely cause of the methane build up was a power outage that disabled the mine’s ventilation system; there was no backup generator. Geologist Murray Cave had warned back in 2007 that the geological risks at the mine site included a pit bottom with deep, highly gassy coals and the associated risk of “outburst”, or gas explosions. The Hawera fault zone running through the mine could be an additional source of methane. Continue reading “The West Coast mining tragedy – An international and historical class issue”

As we learned this afternoon, the rescue we hoped for will not take place. Because of a second major explosion the miners at the Pike river site are all almost certainly dead.
Hard questions remain to be answered and there will be a struggle for the truth to see the light.
As that inevitable struggle unfolds, there are two positive ways workers can respond to this mass killing. One is to donate to the relief fund for the bereft families and community.
The other way is for organised labour to get its bottle back, so that we’re better organised to prevent future fatal industrial accidents  killing our friends, sons and daughters.
The union role in the Pike river disaster has been marginal. The one time it was openly advanced, the boss class closed ranks and drew their claws.
Senior Cabinet Ministers rounded on Australian journalists covering the Pike River coal mine crisis, labelling their questions “disgraceful” and branding one a “tosspot”.
Police Minister Judith Collins this afternoon heaped scorn upon Ean Higgins, from The Australian, for some questions he asked at a media conference this morning.
“Frankly, those journalists need to sit down and think about what they’re actually doing. What they are doing is they are cheapening the work of other journalists working in Greymouth and they are absolutely not respecting the terrible time the people of Greymouth are going through,” Collins said.
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee earlier blasted Higgins as “boorish” for asking why a “local country cop” was leading the rescue operation.
Collins said the question was “disgraceful”.
What caused all this rukuss?
Foul mouthed Australian Ean Higgins had employed the “u” word.
Higgins  asked why Superintendent Gary Knowles was heading the rescue operation instead of a mining union.
Police superintendent Knowles then asserted that the disaster “wasn’t a union matter”.
If Knowles is right on that, then unions are irrelevant and should stop collecting dues and shut up shop.
If Knowles is wrong, Kiwi unions need to find the guts to stand up and show why we deserve to take up space.

The Workers Party extends its solidarity to the families and friends of the 29 workers currently trapped in the Pike River mine.
This terrible disaster is the latest in a steady stream of industrial carnage.
According to the official government website http://www.whss.govt.nz/statistics.shtml
there are about 100 fatal work related injuries in New Zealand each year. That figure does not include premature death from workplace related disease, which is estimated at being 700-1000 deaths a year.
The primary cause of so called industrial accidents is capitalism’s drive for maximum profits. That drive leads to under staffing, speedup, lack of safety equipment provision, deunionisation of worksites with consequent worker deaths and debilitation.
It remains to be seen what caused the latest accident, at the moment the priority is for the workers to be rescued as soon as possible.