Mining For Talking Points

Recently, Limbaugh ( and others ) have set out to do some damage control for Massey Energy and Don Blankenship.

Rush's key point in his tirade against Obama and those decrying the action of Massey was that it was a failure of the United Mine Workers union, that they are somehow to blame for this disaster.

In a recent program, Rush had this to say:

So I checked the e-mail during the break and a bunch of people say, "Hey, Rush, there was no union at that mine. At that Massey mine there was no union. Blankenship kept the union out of there. You can't blame the union for it." The left are trying to blame the Massey disaster on its union busting, in fact. But: "In 2009 the National Labor Relations Board agreed with a decision that Massey Energy rehire 85 coal miners who said they had been discriminated against because they were union members." So there were union workers there, and so the United Mine Workers should have been overseeing their safety. United Mine Workers of America. There were union workers at that mine, and the left is trying to say, "You can't say that, Limbaugh! Why it's a nonunion shop. That SOB CEO got rid of all the unions!" No, no. He agreed to bring back 85 of them. You people, it's been 21 years. At some point you are going to learn: If you go up against me on a challenge of fact, you are going to be wrong. It's just that simple.

Don't you just love his megalomania.

Here's where he's wrong.

The ruling cited by Limbaugh refers to a subsidiary of Massey Energy - Mammoth Coal. The reason that this is important is that Mammoth doesn't run the Upper Big Branch Mine. The company that operates that mine is Performance Coal Co. Limbaugh's claim that 85 union members worked at Upper Big Branch is in no way grounded in fact.

The UMWA further debunks Limbaugh's assertions, as they cite that the Upper Big Branch Mine had no union representation. Had there been these alleged 85 union miners there, inspections would have been monitored by union representatives and those alleged 85 men could have left the workplace voluntarily or been taken from the workplace by their union rep without retribution from the company should the site be deemed unsafe.

The broader point of this is that Limbaugh is attempting to not only slam the UMWA, but to do his level best to spin away from his abject ignorance of what happens in the mining industry and how the UMWA's safety record compares to a non-union workplace.

Rush, I've been blogging for just under 2 years. Your 21 years of lies, distortions, and disinformation just go disproven by 15 minutes of internet research. It's just that simple.