In chapter 2 of Orwell’s book “Road to Wigan Pier,” he gives a pretty gruesome account of coal mining. I know that was 70 years ago, but are the practices roughly the same? Do miners still go through the same type of hell today?
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/prose/RoadToWiganPier/index.html if you would like to read “Road to Wigan Pier”
Mining practices changed enormously since Orwell’s day, mostly improvements in safety and efficiency. But the most significant change is that the coal mining industry was virtually closed down in the 1980s and '90s.
I believe the last operating colliery in the Wigan area closed in 1992.
I wish Anthracite were here, she’d be the best one to answer your question.
But basically, Everett’s right; mining is nowhere near as hellish today as it was in Orwell’s time (and you’ll note that Orwell himself admits that the conditions he saw, bad as they were, were not as bad as they used to be).
One of the big things that makes coal mining less painful, debilitating and dangerous today is the introduction of open-pit mining, which has replaced the shaft mining that Orwell described in many places. No long bent-over crawl to get to the coal face followed by seven and a half hours on your knees; just massive excavations with steam shovels.
In Pennsylvania, one of the centers of U.S. coal production, 708 miners were killed in 1908; in 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1992, zero were killed. That probably reflects not only increased overall safety, but also fewer workers in harm’s way as mechanization takes over.
(people can mail me, of course, if a thread about coal appears)
Open pit mining makes up a much larger portion of the total mining effort of the US, due to the shift to Western coal resources. However, the quantity of coal mined in underground works has not decreased typically; instead, the new increases have mainly all been seen in the open pit (surface) productions.
Open pit mining in the UK, however, has not increased any appreciable amount. And their coal industry can no longer be compared with that of the major coal producing countries, sadly.
Unions have lead to a large-scale increase in mining safety, as has government regulation. As far as direct safety inpacts, the result is much more due to government regulation than Union activity, however. The Unions made mining safer mainly by increasing the value of the worker, which led to mines searching hard for ways to increase mechanization to replace miners.
Thus, mechanization has also led to another factor which is keeping mining incidents down - less workers.
For an example, before 1970, the highest point at which coal mining efficiency reached (on a US scale) was roughly 2.3 short tons per miner work-hour. By 2000, this had increased to 7.02 short tons per miner work hour. However, in fairness some of that increase was due to the dramatic shift to Western open-pit mines.
Longwall mining nowadays is a very safe practice, compared to earlier. And the miners I have met have uniformly loved their job and the pay they get. Actually, I’ve never met an unhappy coal miner, but my experience, of course, is not wide-reaching.
I could introduce you to a few if you like.
Here are some stats about coal in the UK, issued by the Department of Trade and Industry, December 2002: Overview of the Coal Industry in the UK.
Fair enough, I will qualify by saying I’ve never met an unhappy US or Spanish coal miner. There are certainly profound differences between the US and UK in coal mining.
Here’s a link to MSHA, which can provide you with much information. On the opening page, for instance, you can see that so far in 2003 there have been 7 coal-mining related deaths in the US.
Anthracite, my pals in the open pit mining business tell me that “Surface Mining” (as opposed to “Underground Mining”) is the preferred euphemism for the activity they engage in. Have you heard this, or is it just them and their company?
The miners I know who work underground call it “working the longwall”, or just plain “mining”. The surface miners call it “surface mine” in the US, or “pit mining” overseas. “Open pit” is also used. No one ever uses “strip mining” in the industry due to its (deservedly) bad connotations.