Preventable Accidents and Fallen Workers

By Charlie Barber
Staff Writer

“No man is an island, Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main…
Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.”
-John Donne

“You shall not press down on the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind on a Cross of Gold.” 
-William Jennings Bryan

Sacrifices of working people to those who worship crosses of gold goes on today as it did over 100 years ago, through continued deterioration of workplace safety, despite efforts of Congress to give American workers the right to a safe job through the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA).

Nowadays sabotage of work place safety regulations is done mainly through litigation, legislation and executive mismanagement that protects corporations against truly safe workplace laws.

The death toll in West Virginia coal mines reminds us that some of our fellow Americans in other states arguably have it worse than North Dakota.
By the grace of God, of course, rather than current efforts of North Dakota’s WSI.

Before the New Deal of the 1930s, which Mitch McConnell’s Republican Party of “No,” the likes of Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Duane Sand, and co-conspirators on the Roberts Court are striving mightily to dismantle, the methods were more direct. Those who wished to bargain collectively for better working conditions were simply shot.

In the roaring 1860s, banks were also “too big too fail,” but did so owing to crooked ownership by men like Jay Gould and his fellow “Robber Barons.” Gould also boasted in 1886 that “I can hire one half the working class to kill the other half.”

These guys weren’t kidding, and they could count on most newspapers to lie about what corporate killers did to violently suppress labor. Opening fire on unarmed crowds was the thing back then, whether in Chicago or Russia. Unlike today’s irresponsible fantasies of Michelle Bachmann and her “tea baggers,” there really was such a thing as “gangster government” back then.

When working people exercised their 2nd Amendment rights and defended themselves, they were always portrayed in the wrong by the media, in addition to having to face the fire power of private armies and corporate controlled law enforcement.

Research by William Adelman shows the “Haymarket” bomb in Chicago in 1886 killed police and workers alike at a peaceful demonstration by workers to protest police killing six of their own the day before. The Chicago Tribune reported only the deaths of police, urging capital punishment for men who were not at the scene, but who were key organizers of labor in Chicago. (Kenneth Davis, “Don’t Know Much About History”).

The shootout at Matewan, W.Va. (immortalized in the John Sayles movie with James Earl Jones) was left out of the main stream press, because striking miners won that skirmish within a two year armed conflict,1920-1921, when the law, in the person of Police Chief Sid Hatfield, took their side against hired guns of the coal operators. The Governor then called in 500 Federal troops and the strike spilled over into neighboring counties and Kentucky, as the miners’ ranks swelled to 4000. At this point: “2,100 troops of the 19th Infantry, together with machine guns and airplanes were rushed into Logan County. The miners had no choice but to surrender to the Federal troops, and with company law and order restored, the strike was easily defeated. Some 350 miners were indicted for treason, but never convicted.” (Jeremy Brecher, “Strike!”)

Labor never got a fair shake until the passing of the National Labor Relations [Wagner] Act in 1935 ended the need for violent defense of their rights. Unscrupulous management of the future was forced to rely less on hired guns and more on company lawyers and hired legislators.

On April 28, at the steps of the Capitol in Bismarck, some of us will memorialize 12 workers who, according to OSHA records, left home for work in 2009 and did not come back alive. Among us will likely be Tracy Potter, Democratic/NPL State Senator from District 35, and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010, who has been there many times before. Workplace safety has long been a concern of Senator Potter, who, when he was asked to give the keynote address one year, mentioned a famous labor martyr, Joe Hill, who was framed and hung in the days when Jay Gould’s methods held sway.

If John Hoeven shows up it will be the first time, perhaps because in running for the Senate, he may not think it as safe to ignore issues of workplace safety as he has so blithely and consistently done as Governor.

Probably, Hoeven won’t show. He, Attorney General Stenehjem, and the House Republican Caucus seem more intent on pleasing tea baggers. They hope these fools will not realize the Health Care Act actually helps them until after November 2, 2010. Right now, Hoeven & Co. have little time for North Dakota citizens genuinely at risk in the work place.

The good news about tea baggers, their misguided and misplaced epithets, and media shills who glorify them, is that their rhetoric is more violent than their actions. At least by comparison to days before the New Deal.

So far.

Maybe P.T. Barnum was wrong and a sucker is not born every minute. Just every five or ten minutes.

Meanwhile, too many of us still lose loved ones to cynical government officials in cahoots with private industry, thus thwarting conscientious ones and gutting the intent of OSHA legislation. Too many powerful greed heads still put profits before people and sacrifice hard working men and women on their crosses of gold.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)