Role of Union, Management and Other Organization in the Knox Mine Disaster

Unit 1 Discussion Board 2
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Unit 1 Discussion Board 2
The 1959 Knox Mine Disaster in Northeastern is an important story that provides the best framework to understand how the management, labor unions and some organizations engage in corruption, endangering their employees. The company owned River Slope Mine, which mined coal next to the river Susquehanna, which led to the mine collapsing. Billions of water gallons of water from the river flowed into the mine, killing twelve of the mine workers and injuring a dozen others. Based on this disaster, I will discuss the role of the union, management and other organization in the disaster, the route course of the disaster and the labor laws that were broken, and how the disaster could have been prevented.
What role did the union, management, and other organizations have in the Knox Mine Disaster?
The Knox Mine management approved illegal mining activity at the river bank of river Susquehanna. The company was aware of the dangers of mining at the river bank but went ahead to authorize and set up a mining site that endangered the lives of its workers (Berger, n.d; Mooney, 2021). The Knox company was more interested in profit-making than the safety of the employees because the site had been red-flagged as unsafe, thus making any mining activities in the area illegal.
The labor unions also did not step up to protect their employees. They allowed the mining activity to continue despite being in a dangerous site (Mooney, 2021). The union's role is to protect the interest of workers, including their safety in working places.
According to your research, what was the root cause of the disaster? What labor-relations laws or practices were ignored?
The root course of the Knox Mie Disaster was corruption, which led to breaking the laws and safety protocols. The mining activity took place without surface boreholes crucial in determining the rock cover thickness (Mooney, 2021). This was necessary because the mining site's walls and ceiling were next to the Susquehanna river. There was a need for a proper survey to measure the site's safety, but the company did not do that. However, the county and federal officials had researched and assessed the site. They found it unsafe, thus prohibiting any mining activities, but the Knox company went against their recommendations and directives. It directed its workers to continue excavating towards the riv...