ASHER
Asher woke up at ten o’clock. He enjoyed a nap before going to work. The third shift had advantages, but sleep wasn’t one of them. This was his third year at the Necro Metallum Corporation coal mine, which Robert Wingate III owned. Asher learned to operate a shuttle car and scoop during those three years. In his first year on the job, he was a laborer, trade assistant, offsider, and driller assistant. He was a fast learner and a hard worker, often working ten-hour shifts. Six months ago, Asher worked his way up to pinner.
A pinner was essentially a roof bolter. Using the term roof in a mine may be odd, but it referred to a newly cut section of rock and coal. This freshly cut section is one of the most dangerous places in a mine because there are no supports. It could collapse on a miner at any time, crushing them. The pinner secures the bolt to the roof’s supporting metal beam. If you were an expert pinner, you were in high demand.
Asher put on his reflective shirt, pants, and steel-toed boots, which were waterproof. Reflective clothing made it easier to be seen. He stowed his hearing protective ear muffs, gloves, and safety glasses into a canvas satchel and grabbed his hard hat before walking out the door.
Wet snow covered the ground, preserving his footprints from the porch to the side of his truck. Driving, he turned on the radio and sang to a popular country tune. Within twenty minutes, he pulled into the NMC parking lot. He walked into the bathhouse locker room, exchanging standard greetings with his co-workers, usually referring to someone’s sister or mama.
His co-worker Wyatt Taylor welcomed him with a standard greeting, “How are you doing?”
“Not bad.” The standard reply.
He hopped onto the diesel-powered mantrip to start his shift, which could carry five to seven men deep into the mine. The trip took 30 minutes and was dark and hot. Wyatt had already arrived and was surveying the beams that would be used for roof support.
Wyatt shouted, “Damn, it’s hot as hell down here. They need to get those blowers fixed.” He had already shed his reflective jacket. He pointed at the metal supports and suggested, “Let’s grab some of these supports and put them in position.”
It was common to sweat in your tee shirt and drop your dust mask by the end of the shift. It was impossible to get the air to circulate with broken blowers. Stifling dust filled the space while working. Asher’s shift ended, and it was another long ride on the mantrip followed by a long shower before heading home. Looking at the shower floor, he saw black water flow down the drain. He ensured he blew his nose to clear out the accumulated coal dust. He discounted the danger since he was making good money.
Despite its many challenges, Asher loved coal mining for its routine and brotherhood. The job as a pinner was rewarding, and Asher used his money to support his mother. Coal miners knew the risks and accepted them. Most would say, “There are risks to any job.” They would be right to believe that, but the risks of coal mining were sudden and invisible.
Like his grandfather Patrick, Asher was aware of safety problems at the mine. Unlike his grandfather, who died suddenly in a coal sludge dam breach, the danger of coal mine work took time to disrupt Asher’s health. He first noticed shortness of breath when walking uphill to the mine entrance. Later, he had a cough when he woke up in the morning. One morning, the cough was deeper and more difficult to stop. Sometimes, he coughed so hard that he couldn’t catch his breath. However, he never missed a day of work. The other miners depended on him. He didn’t want to disappoint them. Finally, Rebecca convinced him to see a doctor.
Asher took his mother’s advice and visited Dr. Strand in Beckley. The pulmonologist listened to his chest, and a nurse administered a pulmonary function test and took a chest X-ray. Asher was buttoning his shirt when Dr. Strand walked into the room. “Asher, I have some bad news.” He placed the X-ray in the viewer and pointed to spots on the film, saying, “See these small white dots?”
Asher was fearful and replied, “Yes.”
He moved his pencil around the X-ray and stopped at the small black spots. “These are calcifications. There are many.” He reached over, turned on the room lights, and continued, “I am sorry. You have black lung disease.”
Asher slowly sat down. “Ok, but how can we fix it?”
“Unfortunately, Asher, there is no fixing it. We can only give you supportive care, with medication and breathing treatments.”
Asher, still looking for hope, requested, “Can I still work?”
“Yes, you can still work.” He predicted, “There will come a day when you will not.”
“How long will that be?”
“It could be months, or it could be years. We don’t know.”
It was 2008, and Asher continued to work at the mine. Some days, he needed to stay home. Soon, Asher had a very difficult day unrelated to his illness. On April 5, 2010, 29 miners died in a mine explosion. A tornado-like wind repelled the first responders. There was nothing they could do to save the trapped miners.
Like the Buffalo Creek disaster, investigators revealed a poor safety culture. Corners were cut to increase coal production. A spark generated by worn and broken equipment ignited coal dust and methane gas. Broken and clogged water sprayers further compounded the situation by not being able to suppress the flames.
Over the next twelve years, Asher declined in health. In March 2023, Asher became another statistic.
It's so sad how many men and now women too, tolerate the environment underneath our earth as they dig for rich veins of coal. How many avoidable death in accidents these companies could and even now avoid by keeping up the maintenance of their equipment, the coal miners individual safety equipment, fire prevention but greed takes over and corners cut. Why? Because of their overhead, the supervisor/ owner touts in excuses, in every movie and documentary, weve watched. Human life isn't respected, it's just the means to bring up the coal for the coal mines investors, the businesses that buy coal. These mighty once healthy men and women enter repeatedly ,the dark holes, pay a high price for keeping a roof over their families heads, dreams for college for their children so they never have to suffer black lung, and many other health problems. Their communities sometimes several counties away from the actual company. The company store compound no longer exists but there are still rements of its past. Old coal houses flipped into new residences. Theres still missionary out reaches, visiting still homes with forgotten families, hidden away on old winding dirt, worn paved side roads. Their children are bused to schools far away from their homes. Strikes send fears up their spine when it happens. No welfare help comes to them because of their wages, so they must depend on each other and pray for better safety, better health benefits, better for their communities where by their water hasn't already been polluted by previous forgotten closed mines up or down stream.. There are places still burning under ground, where a vein of coal exposed catches on fire, scorching the ground from underneath and communities have to leave to find a new home, because the old one isn't safe, for animal ir people. Everything used to be codependent on the coal mines. One went, everything else went. Have you ever driven behind a coal truck up a mtn, slowed by weight and disel fumes rushing into your open windows on a sunny day? The dust paints streets and homes as the parade of these trucks enter and exit the mines. Narrow roads nightmare, for regular vehicles. Today roads are wider in most places except where they can't be rerouted. Children those whom become adults unlucky unable to participate in more populated parts of their county, are left behind. Generation after generation. I wondered after Obama and Biden shut off the coal mines and exclaimed there were better environment type renewable engery. What happened to all those dependent on the coal mines.... and now I hear that coal once again IS be revived for new energy. How many former workers will return to be willing to risk everything again, just to be an coal miner?