I wonder if they will find him guilty?

[IZZOJR16]

guy sounds like a complete scumbag, funny because his son seems lie such a nice down to earth guy.

[Clayton_Wetter]

No, because he made the reference about accusing Don of murder, which no one in this post did.

Directly no, but there are several implications. I am really referring to previous threads that did make accusations.

[Clayton_Wetter]

Saw on Twitter that it looks like we have a hung jury.

[Clayton_Wetter]

and you don't think a liberal rag like the NYT has a bias against coal?
you going to start quoting stuff from Mother Jones next..?..hope he beats it.

BINGO!!! To them rags, it's just to make a hit piece!!

[TackyTracker]

still no decision.... guess the jury can't decide

[Snowmanracr21]

Every big corporation puts profits ahead of safety and as far as that goes all their people too......money is the root of all evils dating back hundreds of years, and its only gotten worse

[25drtrkr]

Every big corporation puts profits ahead of safety and as far as that goes all their people too......money is the root of all evils dating back hundreds of years, and its only gotten worse

...the LOVE of money is the root of all evil! Big difference!

[gumby_32d]

I think if John was to enter the world 100 best appearing car at eldora in the future, it better be a tribute to the men that lost their lives that day. It's was because of guys like them that busted their tails and made some CEO millions and that CEO's son gets to go out play with race cars all day and live his dream.

[cutman]

I think if John was to enter the world 100 best appearing car at eldora in the future, it better be a tribute to the men that lost their lives that day. It's was because of guys like them that busted their tails and made some CEO millions and that CEO's son gets to go out play with race cars all day and live his dream.

Except for the fact that John isn't doing that anymore.

[t3r3e3]

this happened in 2010 and just now there is a deliberation???

Blankenship has endless funds, high priced lawyers, and bought and paid for elected officials to slow down the proceedings. The bottom line is the guy is as despicable as they come. Most of the time it's out of state interests that pillage WV. Makes it worse when it's a native treating people in the same area he grew up in like dirt.

[t3r3e3]

The shift supervisors are who is responsible for production. If they decide to forgo saftey to beat their quota that is on them. They have direct control of what's going on in the mine , if they felt lives were being risked they should have shut it down. I would be willing to bet there wouldn't be near as much hate for Don if he didn't have more money than the vast majority of this board COMBINED .... He was a ruthless executive who got $hit done !! If he didn't he would have been replaced. As CEO your job is to make money for your shareholders and your compensation is based on how well you accomplish that task. No differnt that a sub contractor working on flat rate jobs

You need to understand the whole picture Huck. Blankenship was the driving force behind busting the unions and switching over from underground mining to increased mountaintop jobs. Mountaintop removal requires a much smaller workforce than underground mining. Pretty much all the Massey mines were non-union, and many of the employees were not local. Massey was famous for advertising jobs in Charlotte, Atlanta, etc newspapers, but not too much locally.

What does all that add up to? Shift supervisors and other employees had to decide between following safety regs or keeping their jobs. Massey always had plenty of new applicants lined up to replace the guys who complained about unsafe working conditions or production above all else. Guys knew they would get canned if they didn't toe the company line, so they looked the other way.

As for the fines, Massey looked at fines as a cost of doing business. They racked up an insane amount of fines, but tied them up in MSHA mediation to the point that they didn't have to pay many of them, or had them reduced.

All of this is why Blankenship is on trial.

[blncfn57]

You need to understand the whole picture Huck. Blankenship was the driving force behind busting the unions and switching over from underground mining to increased mountaintop jobs. Mountaintop removal requires a much smaller workforce than underground mining. Pretty much all the Massey mines were non-union, and many of the employees were not local. Massey was famous for advertising jobs in Charlotte, Atlanta, etc newspapers, but not too much locally.

What does all that add up to? Shift supervisors and other employees had to decide between following safety regs or keeping their jobs. Massey always had plenty of new applicants lined up to replace the guys who complained about unsafe working conditions or production above all else. Guys knew they would get canned if they didn't toe the company line, so they looked the other way.

As for the fines, Massey looked at fines as a cost of doing business. They racked up an insane amount of fines, but tied them up in MSHA mediation to the point that they didn't have to pay many of them, or had them reduced.

All of this is why Blankenship is on trial.

It's nothing that every company in the country wouldn't do. The difference is, the government regulations and fines/penalties generally hold it to a minimum. It don't matter how much money this man had at his disposal, there would have been no stopping the government had they actually cared to step in. Sounds to me like the inspectors were bought and that's where the guilt lies IMO.

[welderron105]

IT aint against the law to bribe the inspectors??

[hucktyson]

The fact that he was hated by democrats / unions reinforces my beleive that this is a political hatchet job. No one put a gun to anyone's head to get in that mine , every guy had the opportunity to quit . I talked to several miners about this situation and not one of them thinks Blankenship made the calls on these details .

[mud duck]

Greed and profits by upper management got these miners killed. Blankenship didn't care one bit about the safety of the workers. I love how some blame it on the govt?? The very same ones that say govt regulates to much!!!!