News from the United States political front that is relevant to mining. I confess to being an US political news junkie, so here goes. The Caucus, the New York Times political blog reports today that mining unions are backing John Edwards. Here is part of their report:
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Today the United Steelworkers and United Mine Workers of America, which have a combined 1.8 million members, threw their support behind Mr. Edwards. His campaign said the endorsements gave him “the largest bloc of union support” of any of the presidential candidates so far.
“The union movement is not just important for the past, it is crucial to strengthening and growing the middle class in America, crucial to lifting millions of Americans out of poverty,” Mr. Edwards said. Wearing blue jeans and a windbreaker displaying the U.S.W. and U.M.W.A. logos, Mr. Edwards spoke for about ten minutes to union members and supporters. He used the opportunity to highlight his health care plan, trade policies and the issue of safety for mine workers in the wake of the Utah mine disaster.
“I promise you that when I am president of the United States we will not have a mine company executive who is responsible for the safety of mine workers,” he said. “We will have somebody who actually understands what needs to be done to keep workers safe who are toiling in the mines every single day.”
The Edwards Evening News Roundup reports that Edwards told the boisterous rally, “America was not built on Wall Street. America was built by steelworkers and mine workers.”
Personally I do not know what to make of John Edwards. I have seared into my brain the image of a guy who charged his campaign fund $400 for his weekly haircut. Being nearly bald, I have not visited a barber in ten years or more. So the thought of trusting a guy who spends more on haircuts each week than I spend on bicycles each year is not one I find easy to entertain.
Maybe the United Mine Worker of America are impressed by his stirring words about America being built by mine workers not Wall Street. I too get caught up in that sentiment. I have earned more from working for mines that I ever earned on Wall Street.
But just because a guy promises to do the obvious, namely fire Bush-appointed MSHA officials, and put somebody honest and competent in charge, does not mean we should vote for him. I recognize that the United Mine Workers Union has a thin field to choose from. It is hard to envisage Ms. Clinton as a supporter of mining, Obama of Hawaii probable does not even know what a mine is, and the Republican candidates are too busy attacking personal liberties & rights to get involved in fundamental things like mining.
Maybe John Edwards will choose Harry Reid of Nevada as his vice-president. Then we certainly would have a good grass-roots mining team.
Edwards is pandering to the unions pure and simple – he is running as the populist in this race (easy to do with the other front runners). His message is that if all of the western mines were under the UMW thumb, the Utah coal mine disaster would not have happened.
The union bosses are great proponents of safety, it was not that long ago that they were blowing up each others houses along with the wife and kids of one UMW president.
If Nick Rahall (West Virginia representative), another politician with strong union backing – gets his mining claim “reform” bill through, there will not be much metal mining in the western US to worry about and they mines will be very safe. Closed and no new exploration but safe none the less.