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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Non-Union Coal Companies Import Foreign Miners To Break UMW in Kentucky |
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by via ML
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12 Jun 2001
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Mine job recruitment concerns regulators
LOUISVILLE (AP) — State regulators have safety concerns as Kentucky coal industry officials consider recruiting miners from abroad. |
The Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals sent a delegation to Washington last week to meet with U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration officials to discuss the implications of hiring immigrants whose training and knowledge of English may be limited.
``It's not like a migrant worker who could chop off a hand cutting tobacco," said Tony Oppegard, general counsel for the Kentucky agency. ``If you make a mistake underground, a lot of people could be killed."
About 20 experienced Ukrainian miners are prepared to come to Kentucky, said Alexey Kuzmin, an engineer with close ties to that country's coal industry.
``The main problem is most people that work on mines here only speak Russian or Ukrainian. They need more English," Kuzmin said in a telephone interview with the Courier-Journal.
Oppegard said incoming MSHA head David Lauriski promised to appoint someone to work with Kentucky officials on issues related to immigrant miners. He said Lauriski agreed language barriers pose a safety problem in mines.
Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, an organization of coal mine operators, said the industry is seeking miners from elsewhere because an advertising blitz to recruit people locally has attracted few applicants.
But Butch Oldham, health and safety director of the United Mine Workers in Kentucky, said the coal industry's interest in foreign workers isn't about a labor shortage. Oldham said there are nearly 3,000 miners in the state seeking work.
``The industry would prefer lesser-trained miners," said Oldham, who believes experienced miners here are being bypassed because of their age and union membership.
Since July 1, 2000, 1,404 people have gone to state employment offices looking for coal-mining jobs, said Janet Hoover, communications director at the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development.
Hoover said the cabinet plans to set up a task force to look into ways of recruiting people to fill mining jobs.
Industry officials believe foreign workers should get consideration if their training is adequate and they learn basic English.
``These people have a great work ethic," said Caylor. ``They have experience, and that's very positive. You'll see a few coming over. It'll be experimental at first."
Bill Grable, executive director of the Kentucky Coal Council, said Ukrainian miners have two major incentives for coming to the United States — higher pay and better safety conditions.
Miners in Ukraine's coal industry, which employs about 570,000 people, earn an average of $100 per month, according to the American International Health Alliance, a Washington-based group that reviews health concerns worldwide. A new miner in Kentucky would earn nearly 30 times that.
As for safety, more than 700 miners were killed in mine accidents in Ukraine in the past three years. In the United States, 95 coal miners died in accidents during that time.
A Lexington law firm is helping the Ukrainians get the necessary papers to enter the United States, said Marc McGraw, a Kentucky Coal Association member whose firm is handling the work.
Other foreign workers already are doing jobs at coal sites, but not actual mining. In May, five Hondurans and two Mexicans showed up in Hazard to take the state examination required for working at surface mines.
The seven men had completed a mandatory 24-hour surface-mine training course in West Virginia with a Kentucky-licensed instructor who taught the course through a Spanish-speaking interpreter.
All seven passed the Kentucky test last month, six with the help of a translator. They are working for Beaver Creek Clearing Co. to remove timber from areas scheduled for surface mining.
Copyright © 2001 The Daily Independent, Inc. |
See also:
http://www.dailyindependent.com/archives/june_01/08/state3.html
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