Coal miners remember those killed in Robena explosion
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
United Mine Workers of America secretary-treasurer Brian Sanson lays a wreath at the Robena Memorial in Greene County.
United Mine Workers of America International UMWA President Cecil Roberts speaks at Tuesday’s Robena mine disaster memorial, with UMWA secretary-treasurer Brian Sanson on the right.
Jon Andreassi/ Observer-Reporter
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
The crowd braced chilly and rainy weather on Tuesday to remember those killed in the Robena Mine explosion 60 years ago.
It has been 60 years since 37 men were killed in an explosion at Robena Mine, and that memory continues to encourage coal miners to fight for safer working conditions.
That was the message delivered Tuesday morning by speakers at the Robena Memorial, located along Route 21 in Monongahela Township near the Hatfield Power Plant, where the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and local workers marked the somber anniversary.
“We need to make sure that people understand what’s happening here, and what happened back then. We cannot forget,” said Brian Sanson, UMWA International secretary-treasurer.
The youngest person who died in the explosion was 18-year-old Albert Bronakoski, who had been studying at Penn State to become a mining engineer. An investigation would later determine that the explosion was caused by an accumulation of methane gas and coal dust.
UMWA International President Cecil Roberts was the keynote speaker at the memorial. He spoke of the personal toll the explosion took on the surviving families.
“A mother and a wife turned into a widow just like that. That’s how quick these lives went. Now, she has to try to determine how do we get to Christmas? How do I support this family? How do we live? We forget about that sometimes,” Roberts said.
Roberts went on to describe other major mining accidents, particularly the Monongah Mine disaster in West Virginia in 1907, which has an official death toll of 362, though Roberts suggested it is likely higher.
Robena and Monongah both took place on Dec. 6, but that is not the only similarity Roberts pointed out.
“This government did absolutely nothing. Nothing, where 500 people died in a coal mine. That was 1907. Fast forward to 1962. Nothing. Absolutely nothing to protect coal miners,” Roberts said.
It would not be until 1969 that the federal government would adopt the Federal Coal Mine and Health and Safety Act, which led to the creation of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Roberts went on to make the point that miners still struggle to have the government step in with safety regulations. He referenced the Upper Big Branch-South Mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners.
“It has now been 12 years since Upper Big Branch, and not one single law was passed. Not one, because they don’t want to rock the boat with people in power,” Roberts said.
He ended his remarks with a call for coal miners to organize and work to make their jobs safer.
“We are at our best when we say we’ve had enough of this, we’re not going to take it anymore, and miners and workers across this country need to stand up and fight back,” Roberts said.