#miners — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

According to Union Carbide’s own records, of the 1,500 men who worked exclusively inside the tunnel during its construction, 1,115 were Black, and almost none were from the local area.

Awaiting them in the tunnel’s path: thousands of feet of solid rock that, when blasted and drilled and chiseled and shoveled, transformed into tiny, glass-like particles that sliced a million little cuts into your lung tissue until slowly, slowly, slowly, over years even, you died.

(. . .)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) notes that respirable crystalline silica, created 'when cutting, sawing, grinding, drilling, and crushing stone [or] rock,' is made up of particles 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, and that anyone who inhales it is at a higher risk of developing a horrific, irreversible, and incurable disease called silicosis. OSHA wasn’t established until 1970, but these facts were well-known by the time the Hawk’s Nest project was underway, and engineers and executives at Union Carbide would have been aware of the risk.

(. . .)

He reconstructed all of it, and it is all chilling, and the most chilling parts of the book are the descriptions of life for the tunnel workers. The discrepancies between the living conditions of Black and white workers are particularly striking: Laborers lived in two-room shanties, with two bunk beds in each room. Black workers slept eight to 12 in a shanty; whites just four. Black shanties had no electricity, while those housing the white workers did.

Never did the company that Union Carbide had formed to oversee the project, the New Kanawha Power Company, measure dust levels in the tunnel, which would have been a common practice even then."

https://archive.ph/MgtxC

#miners #appalachia #coverups #westvirginia #silicosis #history

Levka @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 18:58 UTC

#miners #Appalachia #coverups #WestVirginia #silicosis #history

"America’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster And the Cover-Up That Erased It from History

The men came to West Virginia wanting nothing more than honest work. Instead, they faced a silent killer.

(. . .)

According to Union Carbide’s own records, of the 1,500 men who worked exclusively inside the tunnel during its construction, 1,115 were Black, and almost none were from the local area.

Awaiting them in the tunnel’s path: thousands of feet of solid rock that, when blasted and drilled and chiseled and shoveled, transformed into tiny, glass-like particles that sliced a million little cuts into your lung tissue until slowly, slowly, slowly, over years even, you died.

(. . .)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) notes that respirable crystalline silica, created 'when cutting, sawing, grinding, drilling, and crushing stone [or] rock,' is made up of particles 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, and that anyone who inhales it is at a higher risk of developing a horrific, irreversible, and incurable disease called silicosis. OSHA wasn’t established until 1970, but these facts were well-known by the time the Hawk’s Nest project was underway, and engineers and executives at Union Carbide would have been aware of the risk.

(. . .)

He reconstructed all of it, and it is all chilling, and the most chilling parts of the book are the descriptions of life for the tunnel workers. The discrepancies between the living conditions of Black and white workers are particularly striking: Laborers lived in two-room shanties, with two bunk beds in each room. Black workers slept eight to 12 in a shanty; whites just four. Black shanties had no electricity, while those housing the white workers did.

Never did the company that Union Carbide had formed to oversee the project, the New Kanawha Power Company, measure dust levels in the tunnel, which would have been a common practice even then."

https://archive.ph/MgtxC

#miners #appalachia #coverups #westvirginia #silicosis #history

Levka @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 18:58 UTC

#miners #Appalachia #coverups #WestVirginia #silicosis #history

"America’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster And the Cover-Up That Erased It from History

The men came to West Virginia wanting nothing more than honest work. Instead, they faced a silent killer.

(. . .)

According to Union Carbide’s own records, of the 1,500 men who worked exclusively inside the tunnel during its construction, 1,115 were Black, and almost none were from the local area.

Awaiting them in the tunnel’s path: thousands of feet of solid rock that, when blasted and drilled and chiseled and shoveled, transformed into tiny, glass-like particles that sliced a million little cuts into your lung tissue until slowly, slowly, slowly, over years even, you died.

(. . .)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) notes that respirable crystalline silica, created 'when cutting, sawing, grinding, drilling, and crushing stone [or] rock,' is made up of particles 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, and that anyone who inhales it is at a higher risk of developing a horrific, irreversible, and incurable disease called silicosis. OSHA wasn’t established until 1970, but these facts were well-known by the time the Hawk’s Nest project was underway, and engineers and executives at Union Carbide would have been aware of the risk.

(. . .)

He reconstructed all of it, and it is all chilling, and the most chilling parts of the book are the descriptions of life for the tunnel workers. The discrepancies between the living conditions of Black and white workers are particularly striking: Laborers lived in two-room shanties, with two bunk beds in each room. Black workers slept eight to 12 in a shanty; whites just four. Black shanties had no electricity, while those housing the white workers did.

Never did the company that Union Carbide had formed to oversee the project, the New Kanawha Power Company, measure dust levels in the tunnel, which would have been a common practice even then."

https://archive.ph/MgtxC

#miners #appalachia #coverups #westvirginia #silicosis #history

Levka @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 18:58 UTC

#miners #Appalachia #coverups #WestVirginia #silicosis #history

"America’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster And the Cover-Up That Erased It from History

The men came to West Virginia wanting nothing more than honest work. Instead, they faced a silent killer.

(. . .)

According to Union Carbide’s own records, of the 1,500 men who worked exclusively inside the tunnel during its construction, 1,115 were Black, and almost none were from the local area.

Awaiting them in the tunnel’s path: thousands of feet of solid rock that, when blasted and drilled and chiseled and shoveled, transformed into tiny, glass-like particles that sliced a million little cuts into your lung tissue until slowly, slowly, slowly, over years even, you died.

(. . .)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) notes that respirable crystalline silica, created 'when cutting, sawing, grinding, drilling, and crushing stone [or] rock,' is made up of particles 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, and that anyone who inhales it is at a higher risk of developing a horrific, irreversible, and incurable disease called silicosis. OSHA wasn’t established until 1970, but these facts were well-known by the time the Hawk’s Nest project was underway, and engineers and executives at Union Carbide would have been aware of the risk.

(. . .)

He reconstructed all of it, and it is all chilling, and the most chilling parts of the book are the descriptions of life for the tunnel workers. The discrepancies between the living conditions of Black and white workers are particularly striking: Laborers lived in two-room shanties, with two bunk beds in each room. Black workers slept eight to 12 in a shanty; whites just four. Black shanties had no electricity, while those housing the white workers did.

Never did the company that Union Carbide had formed to oversee the project, the New Kanawha Power Company, measure dust levels in the tunnel, which would have been a common practice even then."

https://archive.ph/MgtxC

#miners #appalachia #coverups #westvirginia #silicosis #history

Peter Riley @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 09:56 UTC

The people are marching upon the administrative capital, #LaPaz, from all corners of the Andean country. The #strikes are being coordinated by the largest #miners union (FSTMB) and the confederation of #peasant workers (CSUTCB).

https://www.thecanary.co/global/2026/05/15/bolivia-workers-launch/

#Bolivia #COB #GeneralStrike #Labourmovement #solidarity #union

#bolivia #cob #generalstrike #labourmovement #solidarity #union

Peter Riley @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 09:56 UTC

The people are marching upon the administrative capital, #LaPaz, from all corners of the Andean country. The #strikes are being coordinated by the largest #miners union (FSTMB) and the confederation of #peasant workers (CSUTCB).

https://www.thecanary.co/global/2026/05/15/bolivia-workers-launch/

#Bolivia #COB #GeneralStrike #Labourmovement #solidarity #union

#bolivia #cob #generalstrike #labourmovement #solidarity #union

Peter Riley @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 09:56 UTC

The people are marching upon the administrative capital, #LaPaz, from all corners of the Andean country. The #strikes are being coordinated by the largest #miners union (FSTMB) and the confederation of #peasant workers (CSUTCB).

https://www.thecanary.co/global/2026/05/15/bolivia-workers-launch/

#Bolivia #COB #GeneralStrike #Labourmovement #solidarity #union

#lapaz #strikes #miners #peasant #bolivia #cob

Peter Riley @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 09:56 UTC

The people are marching upon the administrative capital, #LaPaz, from all corners of the Andean country. The #strikes are being coordinated by the largest #miners union (FSTMB) and the confederation of #peasant workers (CSUTCB).

https://www.thecanary.co/global/2026/05/15/bolivia-workers-launch/

#Bolivia #COB #GeneralStrike #Labourmovement #solidarity #union

#peasant #miners #strikes #lapaz #union #solidarity

Peter Riley @[email protected] · 2026-05-16 · 09:56 UTC

The people are marching upon the administrative capital, #LaPaz, from all corners of the Andean country. The #strikes are being coordinated by the largest #miners union (FSTMB) and the confederation of #peasant workers (CSUTCB).

https://www.thecanary.co/global/2026/05/15/bolivia-workers-launch/

#Bolivia #COB #GeneralStrike #Labourmovement #solidarity #union

#bolivia #cob #generalstrike #labourmovement #solidarity #union