With Massey Energy Execs Cutting Deals

Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO who gained wide notoriety for his relentless drive for profits at the expense of workers, has thus far remained unpunished for a major act of “industrial homicide," as the United Mine Workers of America have described the April 5, 2010 explosion at the Massey-owned Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W. Va. that killed 29 miners.

Blankenship was forced to step down after the disaster but walked away with a lavish “golden parachute” that included $2.7 million upon his retirement, another $10 million paid out in 2011, millions more in deferred compensation, a free house for life, health insurance coverage, a secretary and other perks.

Blankenship and other top Massey executives smugly refused to testify before federal and state committees investigating the disaster, perhaps believing that they could successfully stonewall investigators by practicing the Mafia-style code of silence known as “omerta.” Shielded also by the conservative deification of “job creators” like Blankenship and demonization of  laws that protect workers’ lives as “excess regulations,” the Massey CEO—with the confidence of an old-time Sicilian mafioso—brazenly stated, “I pretty well think I know what happened and what the outcome will be, so I’m not concerned anymore about the investigation. I think it’s pretty much behind us.”

However, last Thursday’s conviction of Massey executive Gary May—who agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for his relatively light sentence—may cause Blankenship to become more concerned. The conviction could be the first step on a trail that leads directly to Blankenship.

May, a former Blankenship underling, was sentenced to 21 months in prison and a $20,000 fine for conspiracy. He admitted to ordering a company electrician to disable a methane monitor on a mining machine so it could continue to cut coal without automatic shutdowns. NPR reports that May “also pleaded guilty to deceiving federal mine safety inspectors and hiding safety violations.”

With the methane monitor shut off, the buildup of volatile methane fumes from coal dust eventually led to an explosion at Upper Big Branch so forceful that it traveled seven miles underground and killed the 29 workers.

But it’s unlikely that May was acting on his own when he shut down safety procedures. Don Blankenship was a “CEO whose micromanagement is well-documented,” as Vicki Smith reported for the Associated Press. “At Upper Big Branch, for example, Blankenship demanded production reports every 30 minutes.”

A higher-ranking former Massey executive, David Hughart, potentially facing heavy charges for his role in the proliferation of safety hazards in Massey mines, has also agreed to cooperate. Hughart’s testimony could be critical in finally holding Blankenship responsible, observed Phil Smith, communications director of the United Mine Workers of America, to Working In These Times. “The burden of proof is that [federal prosecutors] need to prove Blankenship’s direction and or knowledge of Massey’s efforts to evade the law. With Hughart, this is the first time that anyone has looked past the mine level and looked at the corporate level.”