Jeanne Marie Laskas Quotes

My father and brothers were coal miners.

My great-grandfather was a coal miner, who worked in Pennsylvania mines when carts were pulled by mules and mines were lit by candles. Mining was very dangerous work then.

Coal mining is an industry rife with mismanagement, corruption, greed and an almost blatant disregard for the safety, health and quality of life of its work force. Everyone knows this. Everyone has always known it.

Then there was the whole concept of coal mining, which is a culture unto itself, the most dangerous occupation in the world, and which draws and develops a certain kind of man.

My grandfather, who brought me up, was a coal miner. I visited the mines with him. I remember it vividly. It was horrible. I'm glad I didn't go into the family business.

The problem of working in a mine, you are inside the belly of the monster, and it controls you. The air you breathe, the stones that fall on your head, we had to be on guard.

To be honest, it was slavery. Nobody should have any romantic ideas about working underground. It's very, very dangerous. You always knew you were living in danger. You were on your hands and knees half the day.

I never went into the mine. But I saw my father and other men coming out, day after day, their faces and bodies covered in soot. It looked very hard and dangerous.

He described how, as a boy of 14, his dad had been down the mining pit, his uncle had been down the pit, his brother had been down the pit, and of course he would go down the pit.

I was in chemical jail.

Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.

Every single Federal mine safety initiative has been written with the blood of miners.

There is a risk between toxicity and hazard. Just because it is a risk doesn't mean you are in danger.

The leaks can kill you.

The collier women of this village—poor over-toiled creatures who carried up all the coal from underground on their backs by a long turnpike stair inserted in one of the shafts—continued to bear more of the marks of serfdom still about them …

No pound of coal is worth getting hurt over.

When people are involved, accidents will happen…. You don’t want to drink frack fluid.

I oppose increased black-lung benefits for miners, because ‘they chose to be miners.

Many mines in the world are unsafe. They are dangerous as hell.

Employers will work you longer for less money and under questionable safety conditions because it is their duty to prioritize the bottom line. As individuals, we cannot complain. That's why we need a union to speak for us, certainly when our safety, our health, and our very lives are at stake!

Many Americans are unaware that discarded electronics often contain lead, mercury, and other toxins and end up being salvaged under inhumane conditions in the developing world.

I don't think us going out in the crowd would be a good idea. I think that we'd be torn apart limb from limb.

I was shaped by a pit environment and the Second World War. My playground was on the pit tip at Clay Cross and I grew up with that mining background. My father was a miner and my granddad was a miner, and I would say three out of ten on the street where I was born were working in the pits.

Coal mines make the news only when they explode, collapse, kill. It's exciting! Tragedy! Fodder for a cable-news frenzy.

There are so many chemicals in things - that's why people are getting sick.