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Working Conditions
A spate of mine deaths reveals damming evidence of the failure of attempts to reduce ‘accidents’ and illegal mines
A spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety, Huang Yi, stated that; "Of course coal mining is still a dangerous activity in China. The safety situation remains serious … although the number of accidents has dropped, there is still an effect on society."
Added to this is the continued media clampdown on many accidents, the cover-up of accidents by mine owners and the shoddy treatment of victims’ families and inadequate compensation. The situation is further exacerbated by the extensive and often illegal land-grabbing of farm land in rural areas for industrial or other uses (often by officials) which in some regions means that local famers are forced to become ad-hoc miners, untrained and poorly paid. [Families mourn victims of Shanxi mudslide@Reuters] There has been a spate of accidents and deaths in recent months and the figures for August and the first week of September are shocking enough. In preparation for the Olympics, many small mines near Beijing were closed but now many have reopened. A renewed push on coal stocks has led many small mines, previously closed for safety reasons to reopen – legally. Many closed mines continue to operate, regardless of official decrees. Corruption in the industry is rampant and the collusion between officials and mine owners remains huge – especially given the massive shortfall of inspectors and the failure to implement even the most basic of Chinese extensive labour legislation. Most accidents are caused by the extensive lack of even basic safety procedures or equipment. Many are caused by the illegal nature of the mine or shaft itself, some are caused by a lack of training and some are caused or exacerbated by management forcing miners to work in unsafe conditions – despite laws to the contrary. Only a handful are actually ‘accidents’. Indeed most would fall squarely into the category of corporate manslaughter, if not downright murder. Below is an overview of recent incidents, including the mudslide on 8 September caused by illegal mining which has killed over 120 people at time of writing. In four weeks almost 200 people have died. 8 September 2008 : By 11 September, at least 128 people had been officially counted as dead with 34 more injured after a massive landslide on 8 September caused an overloaded reservoir of illegal iron ore waste at the Tashan ore mine in Linfen, Shanxi Province to burst, sweeping mud over a nearby village. Authorities declined to provide a figure for the number of missing people, saying an investigation is ongoing as some 2,000 rescuers search the mud. The mine was operating illegally and the reservoir of ore waste had collapsed, sending mud and rocks pouring down the hillside into a busy market and engulfing a building holding a weekly meeting of some 100 mining personnel. Only three of whom have been found alive. Hopes of finding people alive are diminishing and witnesses report that the death toll was likely to rise significantly. "Our village is still searching for about 50 missing people," said Zhang Baojun, a 46-year-old man from Yunhe village, 200 metres downstream of the mine. Initially, with the death toll at only 54, the Communist Party propaganda chief of Xiangfen county, where the mine in located, dismissed reports of hundreds of dead as "rumour" but refused to estimate the toll. "It's all conjecture at the moment," the propaganda chief, Dong Fengyi, said in an interview. Many of the dead were apparently migrant workers from southwest China. Rescuers were reported as saying that it was difficult to identify the victims as most of the mine workers were migrants from elsewhere in Shanxi, Chongqing and central Hubei province. Friends and relatives hoping were kept away from the site by police with some accusing officials of incompetence; "It's not because of the rain. It wasn't a natural disaster, it was man-made," said a migrant worker surnamed Zhang, who said his friend was probably killed. "They knew about that reservoir and did nothing," cried one woman, trying to get past the police cordon to the mudslide. She said seven relatives were missing, including her husband. Iron ore mining is generally open cast and as such less regulated as it is seen as essentially safer, despite the increasing attractiveness of such mining due to rising prices. According to Reuters, Shanxi launched a three-year campaign to lower hazards from [iron] mines and tailings in April 2007. As some media have highlighted, this particular accident not only shows up commonplace scale of illegal mining and the dangers involved but also the other main public safety concern; the lack of proper inspection, repair and construction in much of China’s public infrastructures – especially in rural areas. Coming so soon after the widespread failure of most rural schools to withstand the Sichuan earthquake – and the resulting high number of children killed – this accident should further serve to remind local authorities of the dangers of shoddy construction, inadequate legal implementation and the corruption that underlies the problem. On 9 September 2008, a gas explosion at a coal mine in Yunnan Province killed one and left four others trapped underground. The accident happened at about 4:40 p.m. at the Hengda Coal Mine in Yiliang County of Zhaotong City. Rescue efforts are still underway. On 7 September, a flood in a coal pit in central Henan province trapped 24 miners. One day later only six had been rescued raising fears for the remaining 18. On 5 September, a gas blast at a coal mine in southwest Sichuan killed 15 miners, with three missing. The explosion occurred at 2:52 am in a mine in Xingwen county when forty-four people were working in the mine at the time. 26 emerged alive. On 4 September, an explosion at a colliery in Fuxin, Liaoning Province killed 27. On 27 August, nine miners were trapped in an illegal coal mine in Guye district, Tangshan, Hebei Province. Police were only notified early on 29 August that the nine workers were trapped. Police said the nine miners were hired by a businessman, Han Fengguo, who allegedly had an underground passage dug beneath his coal-retailing business, to enable illegal coal extraction from a mine owned by the Zhaogezhuang branch of Kailuan Group, a state-owned coal-mining giant. The surface of the passage collapsed early on Wednesday during heavy rain, trapping the nine workers, according to a preliminary investigation. Han has been detained by the police. On 18 August, a gas blast at the Baijiagou mine in Liaoning Province killed 20 miners with a further four dead miners recovered on 22 August bringing the total of dead workers to 24. Eighty-one miners were working underground when the accident happened at about 8:50 a.m. Eleven miners were injured in the accident, four of them were severely injured. Family members of the 20 dead miners, whose bodies were already cremated, signed their named on the compensation agreements with the coal mine. The mine promised that each family will receive a minimum of 200,000 Yuan (about 28,600 U.S. dollars) as compensation. The mine was opened in 1976. It was fully-licensed and has 450 employees. The mine reportedly produces 100,000 tons of coal a year On 13 August, a cave-in at theLongtanchong mine in Longqiao Town, Lujiang County, Anhui Province took place killing three miners, trapping five others while 16 escaped. Two others trapped were finally rescued after 50 hours. All five trapped were local farmers. The collapse occurred at around 5 p.m when 21 miners were underground. The mine was privatized in 2002 and ahs a reported annual production capacity of 60,000 tons. The mine owner surnamed Liu is currently under police detention. Total for 13 August - 11 September 2008 :Confirmed dead = 198, Injured = 45, Traped/wherabouts unknown = 38 + "100's", Rescued = 50+For more information: Mining Accidents in Prison Camp The case of Huayuan coalmine – Not a “natural disaster”.
IHLO
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China has the world's deadliest mining industry, especially in coal mining. The problem – despite repeated crackdowns on small and illegal mines (who have the worst safety records) has produced little real respite for miners. Every year the same announcements are made and mines are closed, only to re-open weeks or even days later. Most recently the authorities focused efforts on reducing official ownership of mines, in an effort to rid itself of the image that its own officials were increasing the death toll and in an effort to address the widespread impunity that surrounds mine owners. Penalties were increased and officials and party members told to relinquish township of mines. However, the need for cheap energy supplies and the inadequacy of the reforms continue to mean repeated accidents and a dreadful sense of déjà vu when miners’ bodies are collected from gas blasts, floods and ‘closed’ mines.