[cuppett777]

Massey CEO Don Blankenship to retire Dec. 30
The Williamson Daily News
19 days ago | 2102 views | 0 | | 10 | |
slideshow RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Massey Energy Co. says chairman and chief executive Don Blankenship is retiring on Dec. 30.

The company said Friday that current President Baxter Phillips will replace Blankenship.

Blankenship, who joined the central Appalachian coal producer in 1982, said it was time to go after nearly 30 years with the company.

The southern West Virginia native's tenure with Massey has been marked by battles with labor and government regulators.

He is currently feuding with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration over safety issues at the company's Upper Big Branch mine. An explosion at the mine in April killed 29 and injured two.

Blankenship has blamed the explosion on a sudden rush of natural gas into the mine, and ventilation changes forced by MSHA.


Read more: The Williamson Daily News - Massey CEO Don Blankenship to retire Dec 30 ...........to some this has been along time coming, to others, they dont want him to quit, either way he did help create alot of jobs for KY-WV-VA, i worked for Massey for a while and was thankful for the job...

[TheRealVille]

Forced to retire, I'd say. It looks like he is a black mark to coal.

[Old School]

With the rumors of Massey possibly selling out to another company the retirement of Blankenship is for the best. Blankenship has been a lighting rod for several years now and as long as he is in charge Massey will be regarded as an outlaw company by environmental groups and MSHA, regardless if their guilty or not.

[Hoot Gibson]

I don't think that it will matter who Massey names as Blankenship's successor. The top executive of any successful, large non-union coal company will always be demonized by liberal politicians, the UMWA, and the media.

[OrangenowBlue]

I don't think that it will matter who Massey names as Blankenship's successor. The top executive of any successful, large non-union coal company will always be demonized by liberal politicians, the UMWA, and the media.

I do not necessarily agree with that. Blankenship was 100% an ***. He did not give a crap about his men. He was only worried about making money. His men were paid well but most companies pay they're men well today. Richard Gilliam owned Black Mountain Resources for years and there was accidents involving his company and you never heard him get demonized on a personal level. He allowed his PR people to deal with the problems and he kept his mouth shut. Blankenship has been running his mouth for over 20 years. When Mr. Gilliam sold his company to Massey for over $900 million, he gave each employee over $4000.00 per year bonus for however many years they had been working for him. He also matched this in their 401K. Since then he has given Harlan County schools $1 Million dollars for a football field. His mines were also non-union. For 20 years, Mr. Blankenship has been arrogant, defiant, bought politicians, smoozed with judges and has rightly earned the negative publicity. For the same period of time, although his mines has been far from perfect as there has been fatalities, Mr. Gilliam has been quiet, out of the limelight, extremely generous, always lending a hand to Harlan and Letcher County with minimal publicity. I do agree with you that the media, politicians, and UMWA are wrong in many situations, but we need to judge each situation and person separate and different. That is the problem with liberals and conservatives. They take a side no matter what proof exists instead of looking and treating incidents and situations as separate entities to be judged on their own merits or fallacies.

[Hoot Gibson]

I do not necessarily agree with that. Blankenship was 100% an ***. He did not give a crap about his men. He was only worried about making money. His men were paid well but most companies pay they're men well today. Richard Gilliam owned Black Mountain Resources for years and there was accidents involving his company and you never heard him get demonized on a personal level. He allowed his PR people to deal with the problems and he kept his mouth shut. Blankenship has been running his mouth for over 20 years. When Mr. Gilliam sold his company to Massey for over $900 million, he gave each employee over $4000.00 per year bonus for however many years they had been working for him. He also matched this in their 401K. Since then he has given Harlan County schools $1 Million dollars for a football field. His mines were also non-union. For 20 years, Mr. Blankenship has been arrogant, defiant, bought politicians, smoozed with judges and has rightly earned the negative publicity. For the same period of time, although his mines has been far from perfect as there has been fatalities, Mr. Gilliam has been quiet, out of the limelight, extremely generous, always lending a hand to Harlan and Letcher County with minimal publicity. I do agree with you that the media, politicians, and UMWA are wrong in many situations, but we need to judge each situation and person separate and different. That is the problem with liberals and conservatives. They take a side no matter what proof exists instead of looking and treating incidents and situations as separate entities to be judged on their own merits or fallacies.

I don't recall ever meeting Mr. Blankenship, but I can tell you that the coal industry needs more executives who are willing to publicly defend the industry - not more "leaders" who let their lawyers do all their talking for them.

I have been away from the coal business for quite a few years now but I can tell you that a handful of what you would probably consider more "reputable" coal companies were run by guys who deserved to be in prison. Companies that stiffed land and mineral owners while donating heavily to political campaigns, schools, etc. as they walked away from reclamation liabilities. Some of those companies employed non-union labor and some did not. Companies willing to grease the gears of the political establishment operate under a different set of rules and they receive much better press.

I doubt that many people who are not involved with the coal industry on a daily basis can name a president or CEO of any of the large union coal companies. That is not because unionized operations are run by angels and non-union operations are run by demons. Maybe Mr. Blankenship has made it easier for the media to portray him as the poster boy of the evil non-union coal industry but the media always seeks to put a face on what it perceives as evil.

Massey is successful and Massey is strongly anti-union. Every misfortune that befalls the company draws special attention of our pro-union federal government, our pro-union media, and union bosses like Richard Trumka - who I might might seems to escape the kind of media scrutiny that is reserved for men like Blankenship who are productive members of society.

[OrangenowBlue]

I only discussed one and I would say I know as much about his background as you do Mr. Blankenship's. Mr. Blankenship has a history of pulling political strings to assist in his agenda. You keep bringing up union mines for which the one I referred to is not. Where is all the union mines in Kentucky, I can only think of one because it is on land for which the Scotia Mine Disaster took place. As far as companies greasing the political gears, there has probably been no company use more grease then Massey and Teflon Don.

[Hoot Gibson]

I only discussed one and I would say I know as much about his background as you do Mr. Blankenship's. Mr. Blankenship has a history of pulling political strings to assist in his agenda. You keep bringing up union mines for which the one I referred to is not. Where is all the union mines in Kentucky, I can only think of one because it is on land for which the Scotia Mine Disaster took place. As far as companies greasing the political gears, there has probably been no company use more grease then Massey and Teflon Don.

Our federal government and the state governments of Kentucky and West Virginia have never been any more corrupt than they are today. No large corporation, union or non-union can avoid falling prey to the shake down artists who run for public office and "regulate" the coal industry and remain in business. That is just the reality that every coal company faces. Whether companies funnel money to corrupt politicians and regulators through legal means or through intermediaries delivering bags of cash under the cover of darkness does not much matter as the effect is the same. Dirty politicians warp our legal system to line their own pockets and nowhere is that more evident than in Appalachia.

You are correct that union coal companies in eastern Kentucky are rare but they are rare for good reason. Mining the thin seams of eastern Kentucky according to the terms of a typical UMWA contract is simply not possible. I remember the days when union mines were common in eastern Kentucky, the roving UMWA pickets hiding behind ski masks, and the inflexible UMWA contract terms that led to the rise of non-union mines in the area. Without Massey and the other companies who dared challenge the UMWA, poverty in eastern Kentucky would be much worse today.