r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/AnonymousTimewaster • 8d ago

Video Coal mining

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u/NotBrianGriffin 8d ago

My dad is a coal miner here in the US. When he goes underground he wears a hard hat, safety glasses, steel toed boots, gloves, long sleeve work shirt with reflective tap, a self rescuing respirator, a wireless transmitter that connects to an underground tracking system so he can be tracked anywhere in the mine, and a lunch bucket with probably 5k calories of food. Seeing these guys shirtless with loafers on makes my head spin. I feel sorry for them.

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u/ColdCruise 8d ago

That's all thanks to regulations passed as lobbied for by unions. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the average voter to hate those rights.

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u/FLORosco 8d ago

Regulations are written in blood and erased by money.

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u/Affectionate-Dot437 7d ago

When I was very young, I remember the many times my dad was on strike. Those were tough years on an already poor family. When I was grown and gone from the area I spoke with my dad after a union meeting, " We were offered a pay raise and refused at first, but the young guys just want the cash upfront. They refused to look at the total package and just gave away all the benefits we fought for. They'll never get them back." He was so right.

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u/StonerTourism 7d ago

Happened at my job few years back. Employee's offered 10K cash but lost a ton of benefits including overtime being moved from double time to only paying time and a half. They lost way more than that 10K cash was worth.

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u/temps-de-gris 7d ago

Imagine being the kind of evil it takes to hatch up a plan like this, knowing full well the long-term consequences for desperate people who need the money and are less likely to refuse.

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u/Duperuza 7d ago

I refuse to accept the workers are always "desperate" for money. Short sighted and maybe living week to week due to poor spending habits, but not desperate in the true sense of the word.

The exact same thing happened at a workplace I'm contracted to work at, and after talking to a few of the people who work full time (but lost out on the new EBA vote for immediate cash at the expense of full-time benefits), I have very little sympathy for the short sighted employees who lack the foresight to see that they're shooting themselves in the foot. Or who "only planned on working the mines for a few years" and selfishly fucked over their full-time workmates as a result.

The employer is morally culpable but the idiots who voted it in are ultimately responsible.

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u/johnedn 4d ago

I understand what you are saying, and when I was younger I would've agreed.

But those people who made the stupid decisions did so bc they are idiots, and they are idiots bc the American education system is a fucking joke, and it's a joke bc people with money/power know it's easier to pull the wool over their eyes if they never learned how to think things through for more than a couple seconds

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u/scratchieepants 6d ago

You described magats.

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u/Frosty_Ad4863 7d ago

In my experience everyone in the parking lot says they voted no, but it somehow passes. A show of hands fails every time as my brothers don’t want everyone to know they voted yes

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u/StonerTourism 6d ago

Yup in our meetings it was always 95% voted no. When it really mattered only 30% voted no. Crazy.

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u/UXguy123 7d ago

Boeing!

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u/GetDown_Deeper3 7d ago

Sadly it still happens.

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u/goldenbugreaction 6d ago

There’s an old, old interview with Woody Guthrie where the interviewer, Alan Lomax, asks Woody about his family growing up. Woody says,

Well, they come in there from Texas in the early day. My dad got to Oklahoma right after statehood. He was the first clerk of the county court in Okemah, Oklahoma, after statehood, as he is known as one of them old, hard-hitting, fist-fighting Democrats, you know, that run for office down there, and they used to miscount the votes all the time. So every time that my dad went to town, it was common the first question that I ask him when he come riding in on a horse that evening, I’d say, “Well, how many fights did you have today?” And then he’d take me up on his knee, and he’d proceed to tell me who he is fighting and why and all about it. ”Put her there, boy. We’ll show these fascists what a couple hillbillies can do.”

It still just boggles my mind how in less than two generations, the same kind of people who fought so hard for their union rights can so quickly give them right back up again…and look pleased as punch doing it.

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u/AT_Oscar 6d ago

That's why crossing a union line for the present day satisfaction is detrimental in the long run.

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u/Scotty0132 7d ago

I'm in Canada, and my union is currently in negotions and I'm trying to get the guys I work with to understand this. They only want to look at the increase to pay and want more. They don't want any increase to be put to pension, and they want a big 5 dollar increase per year for 3 years. I keep on bringing up that for that large increase we will have to give up things, like our 36 hour work week, double time, and have an increase to our tool list. The young guys will give away everything for more cash on the check to but their $100,000 small penis compensating pick up trucks.

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u/Ontain 7d ago

you know the company had their accountants make sure that the increase is less than the cost of those benifits yet those young guys think they'll be the ones that do better with the slight increase in upfront money.

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u/Scotty0132 7d ago

It's not just a company where I am the union and mechanical contractors negotiate on the provincial level, but yes the pay increase on the check would be less then the other benifits. Just the double time on hours over 40 a week is a huge deal last year I made more on double time wage then straight time by a significant amount.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 7d ago

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u/5v3n_5a3g3w3rk 8d ago

Some of the blood isn't spilled yet...

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u/No_Baby7927 7d ago

its the same regulations put in place so the United States has child labor laws and safe workplaces but yet and still folks still believe that American made products will solve our internal economic problems. In order for the US to produce anything in the United States of America at a profit you would have to eliminate every single labor law currently on the books minimum wage will be cut in half and it would be a s*** show.

That's the main reason why so many companies are overseas because there are no laws there's no standard working hours there's no Provisions for workers there's no healthcare they're not pensions nothing but work.

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u/dbzfreak2 7d ago

This goes unfortunately hard, sad but true

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u/Equivalent_Hat6056 7d ago

Don Blankenship was no different than the CEOs of today....just a cold bastard who doesn't give a shit about anything but money

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u/Common-Ad-4221 7d ago

Wow! You Sir! Blown my mind now🫡

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u/Bostradomous 7d ago

They’re erased by a fat man in an overcoat

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u/D4nkM3m3r420 6d ago

agreed, but some are made to make someone who knows someone in power money.

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u/Rough_Prick 6d ago

DOGE just recently sent out a notice to hear from industries on what regulations to revoke... Let's see what happens but it won't be pretty

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u/FriendRaven1 5d ago

Excellent. Stealing that.