Robena Mine disaster mourned
The work life of the 37 miners who lost their lives in an explosion at the Robena Mine 63 years ago would still be all too recognizable to miners today, said Michael Phillippi.
“I’ve listened to statements from survivors of Robena, and the things they said were the company put production over safety, and that the mine wasn’t as safe as it could have been,” said Phillippi, international secretary-treasurer for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). “I heard those exact same things when I worked underground, and I’m sure that underground now you still hear those same things.”
At Saturday’s memorial service, held on the 63rd anniversary, UMWA officials honored the dead and spoke against signs of erosion of the federal worker protections the organization had fought to put into place to prevent future disasters.
Around 1:05 p.m. on Dec. 6, 1962, a buildup of coal dust and methane gas ignited in a powerful explosion that killed the 37 men working in the 8 Left section of Robena No. 3.
The force of the blast stopped the watches of many of the men between 1:03 p.m. and 1:05 p.m.
Edward Yankovich Jr., a member of UMWA Local 1980, read off the names of the fallen. All but three had been working in the mines for more than 20 years, the oldest being a 62-year-old. The youngest, Albert Bronakoski, was only 18.
Coming together each year to mourn the victims of the Robena Mine ensures they will not be forgotten, said Brian Sanson, international president of UMWA.
“We don’t forget the lives lost and why they were lost,” he said. “We don’t forget that these families had to wait to hear the news whether their loved ones were going to make it out alive or not. We remember the mine rescue teams that came from all over to rescue their brothers trapped in the mine.”
The impact of the miners’ deaths can be measured in the gaps they left behind, Yankovich said.
Thirty-four wives lost their husbands. Sixty-four children lost their fathers, and three became orphans.
But it can also be felt in the more rigorous safety measures and enforcement inspired by Robena and the explosion that killed 19 miners at the Farmington Mine in West Virginia several years later.
New federal law set mandatory safety standards and required frequent inspections, and created the Mine Safety and Health Administration to make sure companies didn’t skirt the new requirements.
“These men we feel have not died in vain,” Yankovich said.
The push and pull between regulators and companies have continued ever since. Lately, companies have been regaining the upper hand, UMWA officials said.
As they did decades ago, mining companies continue to argue that safety regulations will put them out of business, Phillippi said. Recently, MSHA, created as a watchdog, has been “just as big a letdown” to Phillippi as the companies.
He pointed to a Biden-era regulation that would have taken effect this year limiting miners’ exposure to silica dust, tiny particles from chipped rock that can lodge in the lungs and cause ailments such as lung cancer and kidney cancer.
MSHA paused enforcement of the rule earlier this year after legal challenges from mine operators and other industry groups.
The Department of Labor said in a court filing last week it would reconsider unspecified parts of the rule.
As the court battle plays out, miners around the country will be getting black lung at higher rates, Sanson predicted.
“MSHA is not inspecting the mines the way they used to, and there’s going to be tragedies in our future,” he said. “It’s upsetting to watch this happen because a mining disaster doesn’t discriminate … A mining disaster is going to kill everybody, and MSHA seems to not understand that.”
In the meantime, Phillippi said, UMWA will continue to push back against the companies fighting oversight and a government that “cowers down and gives them what they want” in the hope of preventing future Robenas.
“We’ll fight with them, we’ll fight for them, and by God, if we have to, we’ll fight against them, but we’re going to fight to make sure that our miners are safe,” he said.