Death at Massey Energy

Company
ANDHIKA KAUNANG
GANJAR PEKERTI
KRISTY KHAIRUNISA
NURHAYANI SIANTURI

INTRODUCTION

Massey Energy was founded in 1920 in Richmond, Virginia

Produces, processes and sell coal

Known for several lawsuits, bad environmental record and poor mine safety
such as waterway pollution in Kentucky

Chairman and CEO since 1992 Don Blankership

Case Analysis
April 5, 2010 an explosion occurred in the Upper Big Branch coal mine at
Montcoal, West Virginia, killing 29 workers.
This mine had been cited for 1100 safety violations in three years
In 2009, the mine had been cited eight times for substantial violations of their
methane monitors.
For safety, the methane monitors are supposed to be calibrated once a month
but this mine was found to only calibrate them once every three months.

Don Blankenship as Chairman and CEO since

1992
Was fully aware of safety
Believes that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is the guilty
party
Did not want to risk losing money.
Hi says if any of you have been asked by your group precidents, your
supervisor, engineers or anyone else do to anything other than run coal you need
to ignore them and run coal.

Union
Benefit of working in the company with union
Higher pay
Wider medical coverage
Hours and job duties are well defined
Job is secured
Safe working condition

Unions
Unions assure that miners will get are treated well and are given their moral
rights, without fear of losing their job
The lack of unionized workers at Upper Big Branch was definite factor of the
continued unsafe working conditions
Blankenship was strongly anti-union, leading Massey threatening to close down
Upper Big Branch if the miners unionized tried to unionize them at the time.

Factors leading to the disaster

In 2006, a fire erupted in another mine that was caused by several safety
violations Massey failed to fix, including improper ventilation controls.
U.S Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has cited Upper Big Branch
a month before explosion for 50 violations, 12 that was related to the ventilation
system.
MSHA being understaffed and unable to shut down the whole mine was only
able to shut down sections of the mine.

Ethical issue or concern raised by this case

Lack of internal whistle blowing
Employee did not want to bear the risk of losing job
Limited working opportunity in Montcoal
Againts of union
Union is the only platform for them to fight for their right
As upper bigger branch opposed to be unionized by threaten the
closing the mine if unionized.

union by

CASE QUESTION
1. In your judgment, and given only the facts described in the case above, should the
management of Massey Energy Company be held morally responsible for the deaths
of the 29 miners? Explain your answer.

In our opinion, the management of Massey Energy Company should be held for the
deaths of the miners.

The management of Massey Energy Company should held for the deaths is because of
the safety violation.

The company only make significant safety change in order for their mines not to be
totally closed but not make a major safety changes in order to follow all the guidelines of
MSHA.

Besides that, the Massey Energy Company violates employee right.

Safety inspection of non union mines which is Massey Energy Company was much
different in the union mines.

The Upper Big Branch mine was clearly not safe and as a result 29 miners died, the
management of Massey Energy Company needs to be held responsible for these deaths.

2. Do you think Don Blackenship should be held morally responsible for the deaths of
the 29 miners?
Did not obey the utilitarian principle.
Creating environment problem.
Causes bad effect to the society such as lost of clean water source.
Also violates moral rights or human rights.
Had written a memo suggesting managers concentrating on the production of
coal.Insisted not to waste time responding to request to fix things.
This shows that he priotize profit compared to human life.
As a leader, he should take care of the health and provide safety workplace for his
workers.
Conclusion : Don Blankenship should be morally responsible for the deaths of the 29
miners.

3. Given the fact described in the case above, should the MSHA morally be held
responsible (at least in part) for the death of the 29 miners ?

MSHA has the authority to closed down the mine if the mine.

agency inspectors failed to attend required training courses.the agency neither kept
track of their attendance nor did it sanction them.

MSHA had never forced the entire mine to shut down in order to force it to make
significant changes.

However, MSHA also cannot be fully responsible.

This is because when the MSHA inspector come to a Massey Mines, the only
peopleaccompanying him are Massey company people.

No coal miner at the mines can point out areas of concern to the MSHA inspector All
effort is made the Massey company people to correct any deficiencies or direct the
inspectors attention away from any deficiencies

4. The miners seem to have had some idea of the risks of working in the Upper Big
Branch Mine. Should they be held at least partially responsible for their own
deaths?
Yes I do think the miners should be held the partially responsible for their own deaths.
This is because they know they will face the great risks by working in the Upper Big
Branch Mine.
The miners fulfilled their loyalty by continuing to obey superiors on ignoring the multiple
violations the miners had , even knowing it was their own safety , and lives on the line.
Employees were stifled in their ability to take action with the threat of losing their job
because all of them need money .
A relative of one of the dead miners said (Alicia Peters) :He told me that , at least seven
times , he was told by Massey supervisors that , if he shut down production because of the
ventilation problems , he would lose his job.

5. In light of the differences between mines without unions like the Massey mines, and
other mines that had unions, do you think all mines should be forced to have a
union?

YES
What is the benefit of working in company with union?
Higher pay, Wider medical coverage, Hours and job duties are well,
Safe working condition

6. Miners in the Upper Big Branch mine were paid about $60,000 a year (in some cases less,
and in other cases more, depending on seniority and several other factors) for work that
required no more than a high school education. The average salary for all jobs in the United
States is about $43,000. In light of the chapters discussion of job risks, would you say that
the company was handling job risk in an ethically appropriate manner?
Act Utilitarian

According to act utilitarian, the company handled the job risk ethically.Act utilitarian view
that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the cost-benefits
analysisThe company pay more the market wages which outweigh the costs bear by miners.
Rule Utilitarian
According to rule utilitarian, the company handled the job risk unethically.Rule
utilitarianism begins by looking at potential rules of action. As the work environmental is
no longer safe anytime, although it is high paid salary, it still violated the rule
utilitarianism.

 Legal and Moral Right

If according to legal right and moral right, the company handled the case
unethically.Legal right is an entitlement that derives from a legal system that allows or
empowers a person to act in a way or requires other to act in certain ways toward that
person.Moral rights are the rights that all human beings everywhere possess to an equal
extent simply by virtue of being human beings. In this case, every miner has their rights
to ensure they work in a safe environment. However, the company ignored their miner
right but only focus on the profit. The company should take the extra wages to improve a
better working environment.

7. List all the ethical obligations that you believe the management of Massey Energy
Company did Not fulfil .Explain the ethical basis of each of the obligations on your
list .

Moral Right
This is because they did the violation of right to safe working conditions. All people in this
world, have the right to life while engaged in an essential as a human function and the
right not to be killed on their job operations .The company also violated the rights by
lying to the employees about the conditions of the mine and the management will find the
way to fire the one who was complain to the management.

Kants and moral right

In this theory we have to never use people only as a means to the company ends,
but always treat them as they freely and rationally consent to be treated and help
them pursue their freely and rationally chosen ends .Based on the idea that
humans have a dignity that makes them different from mere objects .And we
should treat people equally and not use them as objects to gain their own benefits.

Utilitarianism Philosophy
Actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they
produce for everyone in society .Specifically , utilitarianism holds that the morally
right course of action in any situation is the one that , when compared to all other
possible actions , will produce the greatest balance of benefits over costs for everyone
affected. The company also create the environment problem to the nature and bring
the causes of bad effect to the society such as lost of clean water sources for their own
benefits