Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 19:13:25 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5.2 Last-modified: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 22:16:26 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 15661 Doug Blackburn 1995 Safety Summit

1995 Safety Summit
Doug Blackburn Speech:
My Brother's Keeper

Good morning.

I have a short film I'd like to share with you ... But first, I'd like to stop here for a minute and tell you how very pleased I am to have us all here together.

I'd like to put this 1995 safety summit in context for you by showing you a training film that was made a few years back ...

If the miners who watched that film in 1915 could visit a coal mine of the 1990s, they would probably stare in amazement at the sophisticated technology we use today ... But they would probably also be surprised that even with all of this technology, we still lose miners to roof falls and other hazards of their time.

I know I continue to be appalled at what I see every day. My mining background doesn't go back as far as that film, but as far back as I can remember, mining and accidents have been synonymous.

The first memory I have of mining was my grandfather's back being broken in a slate fall. He never worked again. He finally died with black lung ... And my father retired with black lung.

My first-hand introduction to mining came in January of 1970 at the Farmington Number Nine Mine of Consolidation Coal Company. If that name brings a sick feeling to your stomach, it should ... As you'll recall, on Thanksgiving in 1968, Farmington had an explosion on the midnight shift ... And over the next ten days it exploded nineteen times.

That tragedy filled the TV coverage ... And our national consciousness ... During that holiday season. Seventy-eight miners lost their lives. That tragedy became the rallying cry for congress to pass the 1969 coal mine health and safety act.

Fifteen months later, I was part of the recovery team that went in and reclaimed the bodies. For five months I saw the devastation of a major coal mine ... Fourteen bodies reclaimed out of the seventy-eight killed ... Damage that was unbelievable this side of Vietnam.

As you might imagine, seeing that devastation and those lives lost as my introduction to mining has deeply affected the way I view coal mining and coal mining safety.

I wish I could tell you that those terrible images were the last ones I witnessed.

But only a year later, as a young supervisor in the fall of 1971, I took a young miner underground for his first day on the job and assigned him the task of taking out a post and resetting it for roof support. I visually inspected the area, but I didn't sound the roof.

When the young man removed the post, a piece of slate fell on his shoulder, dislocating it ... Because I hadn't done a thorough job of inspecting the site and training the new coal miner.

From that day forward, I have made it a point never to pass an unsafe condition or an unsafe work practice without making someone aware of it.

I don't have to convince you that accidents are a bad thing. We all agree on that. What I want to talk about today is the reality that we face today ... That as far as coal mining may have come in the last one hundred years, we still have a long way to go.

Our goal of zero incidents has not been achieved. We cannot feel satisfied with what we have accomplished while injuries ­ and even fatalities ­ continue.

We all know that safety is the right thing to do. We also know that safety is good for business. And we know that safety requires leadership, training and commitment. Let's talk about the third of those right now.

Without that commitment ... That one hundred percent dedication to eliminating, not reducing, accidents ... Our best efforts are for naught. To get there, we have to have a zero tolerance for unsafe conditions and unsafe work practices. And we have to develop what I call an "exceptional attitude". If something is out of line, we take exception with it right then ... We do not wait.

Because if we let even one thing slip ... If we wait even one minute, accidents will happen.

I know this all too well. Let me tell you about Tom. Tom was a mason who built concrete block walls for ventilation in a mine I used to work in. He constantly chipped these blocks with his hammer. For several months, every time I walked by Tom, I told him to put on his safety glasses. He always said "Okay buddy" and went to his dinner bucket to get his safety glasses.

One day he was helping with the roof bolter. Tom hit a twenty-penny nail with a hammer ... The nail hit a knot in a half header... The nail jumped out and ripped Tom's eye out of its left socket. We put Tom's eye back in the socket, took a styrofoam cup and cut it in half and taped it over his eye 'til we got him outside. I put Tom on an ambulance and went to call his wife.

Tom had told me to tell her that he was fine and asked me to have her pick him up at the Charleston Eye Clinic. She asked if it was serious and I said any eye injury was always serious ... But I reminded her that he was sitting up and talking and asked me to have her pick him up.

The next day Tom's wife came to the mine to thank me for the way I handled the phone call. She had a very serious heart condition and she said they might have been sending an ambulance to pick her up if I had handled it differently.

Tom lost his eye. And I learned once again that accidents will find their opportunities ... If you let them. And sometimes even if you've done everything right.

Kenny was a young foreman starting a new pillar section for us ... Charlie was vice president and was there the first day to make sure everything was done perfectly.

When the continuous miner touched the pillar the roof fell. Half an hour later we dug Charlie out from under a piece of rock that had pinned him against a piece of equipment, injured but alive. Three hours later we dug the miner operator out ... But he was protected by his cab and canopy.

Almost eight hours later we finally dug Kenny out. Everything we possibly could have done in terms of roof control had been done. No violations were issued ... No one was criticizable. But Kenny had lost his life.

For every story I've told you, you could probably match me with two of your own. And they all add up to a terrible loss, not only in terms of our business, but through the personal devastation that happens when a miner is hurt or killed.

We have had three fatalities this year at Zeigler. Each fatality resulted in a charge to the company for half a million dollars of liabilities in worker's compensation. In Marrowbone's case alone, the one day that the entire mine was closed cost seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The week that the section was down, was another four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in lost revenue.

In a study done by Arch Mineral, the typical accident ... That's everything from a cut finger to a roof fall ... Cost them eighty two thousand dollars when all the costs were added in and averaged. So these are very much business issues.

But they are personal issues as well. And these personal issues ­ of a husband who can no longer provide ­ of a daddy who can no longer give hugs ­ should give us each long pause for reflection. And because they are personal, we have to make a personal commitment to being responsible for each other ... To being our brothers' keepers. What does it mean to truly be responsible for another?

What does it mean to be "my brother's keeper"?

Well, there's the biblical context ... After Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God asked him where his brother was. Cain answered, "I know not; am I my brother's keeper?"

There's a wonderful tradition in the coal industry. We were taken into the mines by our fathers or our brothers or our grandfathers ... And they provided personal training and guidance for each of us as we entered the mines. And in a very literal way, we were our brothers' keepers.

Today, that's no longer literally the case. It's not as likely you'll be chipping block next to your dad or your brother.

But mining is a very peculiar calling. That crew of men underground at the face .... Psychologically they are at the center of the world. And there's nobody there to support them but each other.

One of the bond-building things that happens to that crew is the responsibility they take not only for their own personal well being, but also for that of their co-workers. From a simple "be careful" to very complex training routines that we go through. From checks that we make every twenty minutes to the casual observance of a condition or a work practice, we're constantly provided opportunities to reach out and help another coal miner to work safely during his time at the mine. To be our brother's keeper.

Most of the time we rise to the importance of that opportunity to be our brother's keeper. But not often enough.

I remember years ago, prior to my tenure here at Zeigler, when I got a phone call at midnight. A rock fall at a mine ... A roof bolter was injured. There were no vital signs when they got him outside.

When I reviewed the investigation, there had been three major decisions by the mine's supervisor that I felt ... And still feel ... Directly led to the death of this employee.

The vice president could not accept that. He blamed it on the design of the piece of equipment and he never could acknowledge the mistakes of the people that led to this fatality. If you can't take responsibility, you can't do anything about it ... You can't go forward ... You can't learn and make changes that will keep it from happening again.

This was probably the most disappointing example of failing to be a leader for safety that I've ever come in contact with. Needless to say, that individual was not with the organization much longer. That kind of failure to be a leader is dangerous.

We cannot turn a blind eye to unsafe conditions or unsafe practices. We cannot turn a blind eye to our responsibility to be our brothers' keepers. We must have our eyes wide open ... And our hearts fully committed to that cause.

This make sense both ethically and practically. Sure, it's the right thing to do. From a righteous or moral standpoint, we have two commandments that tell us so. Thou shalt not kill ... And the eleventh commandment ... Love your neighbor as yourself. We are to look out for him as if he were a member of our own family ... Whether we're working side by side with him or managing him from the front office.

But apart from the moral and ethical righteousness, we know that being committed to safety is also the right thing to do because it's the profitable thing to do.

And not just in terms of the costs I mentioned before ... But in terms of a mine's overall approach to things.

Let me clarify that.

People will tell you that a safe mine is a productive mine ... But I think the folks who say that have got it backwards. The safest mine we have is a mine like Murdoch, where no one is working.

A productive mine is a safe mine because people are doing things right over and over. They're not taking shortcuts, and they're stopping processes when they see something that's not right. Over the long term, that's how you win. Each individual in an operation has to be personally one hundred percent committed.

I have never believed in limiting the focus to safety departments or corporate safety functions.

I believe that every one of our three thousand employees have to be vice president of safety. I believe that every supervisor's and manager's primary responsibility is to the health and safety of every individual miner.

And I believe that it is Zeigler's management responsibility to provide the environment and the values such that every individual feels that the management of health and safety is his responsibility.

We must provide the tools and the leadership necessary to provide a safe environment for every one of those three thousand employees.

And I believe that MSHA and the state departments of mines are our teammates ... And that we cannot have an adversarial relationship. Just as all of us here today must share a commitment, we must have the same goals in mind ... To provide a safe place to work and excellent training for all of our employees so that we can work together towards a zero accident environment.

As we hearken back to our corporate vision, mission and values, chief among our seven philosophies and values is the line: we value an accident-free workplace and a healthy environment. It was through no accident that this was placed first among our beliefs.

And it all starts here. That's the key. We are entrusted with the lives of our employees. That is a sacred trust... And I invite each of you to make a personal commitment. Because we are our brother's keeper.

On the table in front of you is a card with this pledge. This is a pledge that many of us made last year ... And I'd like all of us to make it again this year.

And so, at this time, I'll begin.

I, Doug Blackburn, believe in an accident-free workplace and a healthy environment. I will dedicate my time and leadership talents to providing a safe and healthy environment for the people whose safety and health I am entrusted with.

I'd like you to carry that card in your wallet and get it out once a day, every day, and read it to yourself. And think about its meaning.

Leadership. Training. Commitment. A memory of what can go wrong... And an insistence upon doing what is right. These are the things that made us leaders. These are the things that make us managers. And these are the things that make us, ultimately, our brother's keeper.

For all that we face, I see no greater calling ­ and no greater need.

Thank you.

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