Is it just me or are we seeing more workers than usual end up on a slab in the morgue? Maybe it’s just that the media is starting to pay more attention to the carnage out there in the workplace–the deaths of too many miners may have created more awareness of workplace dangers. Yesterday, five more workers died a horrible death in Colorado:

Five men trapped deep underground at a hydroelectric plant were found dead Tuesday night.

The workers were stranded at mid afternoon more than 1,000 feet below the ground at Xcel Energy’s Cabin Creek plant near Georgetown after chemicals erupted in flames.

All five men spoke to rescuers within 10 minutes of the 2:30 p.m. incident, but no one had heard from them since shortly after that. About 8 p.m., members of a rescue crew from the Henderson Mine reached the workers and confirmed they were deceased.

    By chance, the House Education and Labor Committee is holding a hearing today–to start at this very minute–on the deaths of six miners and three rescuers at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah.

Only a few family members will testify today before the House Education and Labor Committee, but in prepared remarks submitted to the panel, many criticized mine co-owner Bob Murray. The Salt Lake Tribune obtained the testimony in advance of the hearing.

"I put my trust in Mr. Murray," says Aydaliz Sanchez, the daughter of Manuel Sanchez, who was killed in the Aug. 6 cave-in. "He said that he would get them out dead or alive. What happened to that promise? My dad deserves a grave and not to be left inside that mine like an animal."

    But, there is a bigger problem here:

    You see, the system of safety and health is guaranteed to fail. Sure, it matters whether you have federal leaders who care that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has enough resources and ability to function above brain-dead. And it matters whether you have a president who thinks protecting workers’ lives matters.

    But, the truth is that as long as workers’ safety and health is dependent on inspections by a federal agency, or even state agencies, there will still be an unacceptable level of death and injury in the workplace. It is just impossible for outside agencies to inspect hundreds of thousands of workplaces–particularly, the smaller ones (say fewer than 50 workers) where so many dangerous conditions exist–on regular basis.

    Nothing can replace actual worker POWER and authority in the workplace. You get that it two ways:

    1. Obviously, broad unionization. Does anyone doubt that the deaths at Crandall Canyon would have likely been avoided if the place had been unionized? Safety and health is one of the main things the United Mine Workers of America spends its time working on.

    2. Where workers can actually have the power to stop production when some dangerous conditions arise. This has been a power in other industrialized countries that works pretty well, particularly in Sweden.

    Oh, I should throw in this: when we start passing laws that hand out prison terms to executives whose companies kill or injure workers, things might change. Fines are just a cost of doing business–and a tax-deductible cost, to boot. Have some of these CEOs spend some serious prison time, not in a country-club type lock-up but with some guy named Bubba…and see how fast the word gets around that it’s worth cleaning up your act.