Former Massey executive testifies about pressure to produce coalOct 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Wendy Holdren The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
A former Massey executive testified Thursday that he felt constant pressure from his boss, former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, to produce coal, even if that meant disregarding safety standards. David C. Hughart, former president of Green Valley Resource Group, said that taking time to hang curtain to maintain proper ventilation and spreading rock dust to prevent explosions in the underground mines would slow coal production, so these types of safety measures were often overlooked. Hughart entered a plea agreement in late 2012, admitting that he conspired to violate mine safety regulations, including giving advance notice to miners about inspections so the underground crews could clean up any violations. Hughart is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, and anticipates release Dec. 12. Blankenship was top in the chain of command at Massey. Below him was Chief Operating Officer Chris Adkins, and then mine presidents, like Hughart. He testified that he received instruction from Adkins at a meeting in Chapmanville that mine managers "had the right" to provide advance notice. During his cross examination, he said he knew providing advance notice was a crime, but he did not think it was anything serious. Other safety violations at Green Valley included failure to maintain proper ventilation controls, excessive piles of coal dust and fragments, and an inadequate amount of rock dust. Hughart said his mines were sometimes shorthanded, but he faced pressure from Adkins and Blankenship to produce coal and make money. He said he didn't recall feeling pressured to maintain safety standards. Prosecutors displayed a Feb. 20, 2009, memo from Blankenship to Hughart that said, "You do the worst job of managing man-hours of any manager I've seen in my 30 years in the business," chastising him for exceeding the number of man-hours that had been budgeted. Blankenship said he would have to fix the mismanagement himself: "My guess is I'll cut out 15 percent of your people and your man-hours, but it's not something I should be having to do for you." Hughart said those cuts were threatened when his mines were already facing a shortage of manpower to run safely. With such a heavy focus on production, he said his miners couldn't focus on outby work, including roof repairs, track repairs, spreading rock dust and maintaining ventilation. He said if he had to choose between safety and production, it would depend upon how serious the safety issues were. Blankenship asked Hughart in a February 2009 memo why his tons-per-man-hour were only at 90 percent of the expected numbers. A memo a year later from Blankenship to group presidents said, "Please be reminded that your core job is to make money... I'm looking to make an example out of somebody and I don't mean embarrassment." Hughart said Thursday, "To me, (the memo) meant that I could lose my job." Prosecutors also highlighted the Oct. 19, 2005, "Running Coal" memo that demanded production. The memo said, "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything than run coal ... you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills." During cross examination, the defense pointed out that Hughart's plea deal with the government included an agreement not to prosecute him for fraudulent schemes at Green Valley, where he was accused of pocketing over $400,000 of company money. Defense attorney Blair Brown tried to question Hughart about drug charges as well, but U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger did not allow it. Brown noted that Hughart would have been facing 30 years in prison, but with his plea deal, he faced a maximum of six. Part of his plea required him to provide testimony against Blankenship, and without his cooperation, his plea agreement could be voided. Brown said the agreement also required Hughart to tell the truth, but that the prosecutors are ultimately who decide whether or not he is telling the truth. The defense also pointed out a follow-up to the "Running Coal" memo a week later, clarifying that safety is Massey's "first responsibility." "It has been the culture of our company for a long time," Blankenship wrote. "I would question the membership of anyone who thought that I consider safety to be a secondary responsibility." Blankenship said in the memo he wanted mine managers to make every effort to do construction jobs for safety purposes "without taking members and equipment from the coal sections that pay the bills." Brown highlighted another memo from Blankenship later on that said he "had no idea" the mines were dealing with so many violations in day-to-day operations and for managers to drop what they were doing and get a handle on it. Cross examination of Hughart will continue at 9 a.m. ----Former Upper Big Branch miner Brent Racer finished testifying Thursday morning, again citing the pressure Chris Blanchard, former president of Performance Coal, put on his boss to run coal "no matter what the conditions were." Racer said Blanchard didn't want to hear excuses if production was low. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim McVey displayed several citations received at UBB for poor air ventilation and adverse roof conditions; Racer said those conditions were consistent with what he saw in the mine. The prosecution's next witness, Charlie Justice, testified about his work at UBB as a dispatcher. When Mine Safety and Health Administration officials would arrive at the guard shack at the mine site, about 1.5 miles away from the mine office where Justice worked, the guard would call him to let him know the inspectors were coming. Justice would alert the supervisor at the time, which ranged from the mine foreman up to Blanchard, about the inspector's arrival. The supervisor would then instruct Justice to call underground to alert the miners so they could "correct any deficiencies," he said. He would try to find out what section the inspector was going to before he made the call, and if he couldn't get anyone to answer, he would turn off the belt, which was part of a code system to alert miners about an inspector's arrival. He called the advance warnings "everyday common practice." The defense asked Justice in his role as dispatcher, as manager of the underground traffic, if it was important to let the miners know someone was coming, so they didn't run into each other; Justice said yes. "You didn't see anything wrong with giving notice?" Brown asked. "It was very commonplace, just business as usual." Brown also pointed out a discrepancy in Justice's testimony during the trial and his testimony before the grand jury that indicted Blankenship on conspiracy charges. In Justice's grand jury testimony, he said that he was not notified by a guard at the guard shack, but rather, he knew inspectors were on site by "word of mouth" or by seeing them himself, Brown noted. Justice confirmed Thursday that he never received instructions from Blankenship to provide advance warning underground. In his redirect, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin asked if Justice gave warning in front of inspectors. Justice said no, he waited until they were out of earshot. Jurors also heard testimony from Clifton Stover, a rock duster at UBB, who shared his experiences with equipment in disrepair. "I don't recall a time we ever finished what we were supposed to," Stover said. Spreading rock dust is a basic mine safety technique to help prevent explosions. Stover, like several other witnesses, testified that he never heard of the Hazard Elimination Program. In his cross examination, Brown pointed out that Stover rock dusted the morning of the April 5, 2010, explosion at UBB that killed 29 miners. Stover estimated he spread between 3,000 and 6,000 pounds of rock dust, leaving his area of the mine well dusted before his shift was over. -- Email: wholdren@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @WendyHoldren |