Ex-Maid Alleges Blankenship Bullied Her Out of Job

by Lawrence Messina, excerpted from May 3, 2006, article

	"Life is reality & if we all do our part it can be good for everyone If everyone leaves it to a few to do things life isnt good for anyone Don" (Note to Deborah May from Don Blankenship, dated July 12, 2004, from WV Bureau for Employment Programs.)

(AP) CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Don Blankenship’s former personal maid alleges the Massey Energy Co. chief forced her to quit last year by piling on work duties while bullying her verbally and sometimes physically.

Deborah K. May has appealed to Kanawha Circuit Court for unemployment benefits after they were denied by the review board for the state Bureau of Employment Programs.

May said she was hired to be the maid for Massey’s chief executive officer, president and chairman through Matecreek Security Inc. in May 2001. Besides doing laundry, shopping and other personal chores for Blankenship, May was to maintain and clean a three-story home that Massey provides for Blankenship in Sprigg, Mingo County.

May said her duties were gradually expanded to include a two-cabin complex, a four-story hilltop mansion and a customized tour bus complete with a living quarters and kitchen. Hired at $8.56 an hour, May alleges she repeatedly requested more pay for the additional workload but received only a 30-cent raise in 2002.

May also alleges a series of tirades by Blankenship, 55. He once tore apart a closet after she forgot to leave out a hanger for his jacket. He had a secretary demand an explanation in writing after he found one of his freezers

stocked with the wrong kind of ice cream, May alleges.

May further alleges that Blankenship once grabbed her by the arm while she was stocking the bus and ordered her to leave. Another time, he grabbed her by the wrist and threw McDonald’s food around the bus after receiving the wrong breakfast biscuit order …

Shareholders unhappy with Massey’s recent finances have begun scrutinizing Blankenship’s executive perks. During a conference call with shareholders last month, Blankenship was asked about the Sprigg home, built in 1904 and valued at $305,000, which Massey gave him as a gift in 1998.

Richmond, Va.-based Massey is the fourth-largest coal company in the U.S. by revenue and has mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.