Leaked Massey Memo Is Blunt - Mine Coal, or Else!

by Rachel Stanley, Appalachian News Express, Feb. 24, 2006

A leaked Massey Energy memo is creating a stir in the coal mining community. (see memo below)

The internal memo, dated Oct. 19, 2005, was sent from Massey CEO and President Don Blankenship to all of the company’s deep mine superintendents.

It states, “If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e. - build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever) you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills.”

Some miners say they believe the memo illustrates a common complaint - that the industry focuses too much on profit.

“Safety should come first, before the first lump of coal,” says Irvin Smith of McCarr, a retired miner, who was especially bothered by the reference to building overcasts.

(Ed. Note: Overcasts are usually concrete structures used to separate intake air (fresh air coming into the mine) from return air (leaving the mine) at intersections in the mine’s ventilation system, by flowing the return air “over” the intake air. As such, these structures can be critical to preventing the buildup of dangerous or explosive concentrations of gases in the mine.)