NUM strike takes off, cuts output

[dlk001]

Wow, over 250 000 is a lot of workers...

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) launched a one-day national strike on Tuesday to protest against deaths in the country's mines, disrupting operations across the world's top producer of platinum and gold.

Almost a quarter of a million union members were set to down tools in the first industry-wide strike on safety, as the death toll in some of the world's deepest mines mounted to about 200 from 199 last year and 202 in 2005, mostly due to rockfalls and explosions

 

[Alan]

Was on BBC.

Comrades looking out for comrades

 

[lsuacner]

I heard of a scoop driver (drives a mini bulldozer which moves rocks from one place to another) who decided it a good idea to turn the scoop around instead of backing out like he did thousands of times before away from the rockface, when the rocks came down there was no scoop covering himself, so he died.
Why does NUM think the accountant or manager in his office, or the foreman in the mine had anything to do with such an accident, the driver died because of his own fault. Striking will not change a thing, until the mine can start to employ smarter people.

dlk001 I'll race you to grandmaster!

 

[dlk001]

Striking will not change a thing, until the mine can start to employ smarter people.

dlk001 I'll race you to grandmaster!

Striking might force the mines to spend more resouces to prevent Rockfalls, Rockbursts and other related fatalities.

 

[dlk001]

Why does NUM think the accountant or manager in his office, or the foreman in the mine had anything to do with such an accident?,

I doubt Rockfall, Rockbursts are caused by scoop drivers. I stand to be corrected though.

 

[lsuacner]

I doubt Rockfall, Rockbursts are caused by scoop drivers. I stand to be corrected though.

They use the scoop to loosen rock, rocks also loosen when they are picked up even with the greatest care. The scoop protects the driver when used properly, if the driver does not follow procedure (reversing out of the danger zone) rocks will manage to hit them instead of the scoop.

What can managers and foremen do if their employees do stupid things? A mine can be safe, just depends on the ability of people to follow procedure. Safety regulations are there, management determines policy, procedure, employees must implement it.

As I said earlier in another thread, the IQ of most South-Africans is only 72, retards should not hold the fate of their lives in their own hands. Striking won't change much at all.

 

[Xarog]

They use the scoop to loosen rock, rocks also loosen when they are picked up even with the greatest care. The scoop protects the driver when used properly, if the driver does not follow procedure (reversing out of the danger zone) rocks will manage to hit them instead of the scoop.

What can managers and foremen do if their employees do stupid things? A mine can be safe, just depends on the ability of people to follow procedure. Safety regulations are there, management determines policy, procedure, employees must implement it.

As I said earlier in another thread, the IQ of most South-Africans is only 72, retards should not hold the fate of their lives in their own hands. Striking won't change much at all.

IQ is an extremely limited and arguably inaccurate way to measure intelligence. It only measures a very small subset of skills which are also improved with practice. There are several cases of social subgroups suddenly improving 30 points (80-110) on average simply because of a change of enviroment.

And you're assuming that because of one example of stupidity, that mineworkers are suddenly responsible for all 200 deaths. I don't know what you think that proves, but back in sanityville, that's a logical fallacy.

 

[lsuacner]

IQ is an extremely limited and arguably inaccurate way to measure intelligence. It only measures a very small subset of skills which are also improved with practice. There are several cases of social subgroups suddenly improving 30 points (80-110) on average simply because of a change of enviroment.

And you're assuming that because of one example of stupidity, that mineworkers are suddenly responsible for all 200 deaths. I don't know what you think that proves, but back in sanityville, that's a logical fallacy.

IQ and success correlates close enough. Even if IQ can change, at the specific point in time you can't be too smart when by your own doing you kill yourself. If you purposefully contravene procedure and get killed, then toughies.

I'm assuming that safety precautions and common sense is enough to protect people, mining isn't that dangerous. I have had personal experience in working at mines, possibly moving towards Anglo Gold in January for that matter. Trust me when I say, most deaths were caused by the miners themselves, and could not have been avoided by top-managers or the closest level of authority, foremen. The miners do dumb things and you can't watch them all the time.

 

[Xarog]

IQ and success correlates close enough.

That's because IQ tests skills which are regularly used in a work enviroment. That still means it has nothing to do with actual intelligence.

Even if IQ can change, at the specific point in time you can't be too smart when by your own doing you kill yourself. If you purposefully contravene procedure and get killed, then toughies.

Sure. But even people with IQs 130+ have their stupid moments. A high IQ score is no guarantee of foresight.

I'm assuming that safety precautions and common sense is enough to protect people, mining isn't that dangerous. I have had personal experience in working at mines, possibly moving towards Anglo Gold in January for that matter. Trust me when I say, most deaths were caused by the miners themselves, and could not have been avoided by top-managers or the closest level of authority, foremen. The miners do dumb things and you can't watch them all the time.

Maybe, but I'm not going to take your word for it. And ensuring that the mineworkers have safety education isn't something for the miners to sort out for themselves.

 

[dlk001]

They use the scoop to loosen rock, rocks also loosen when they are picked up even with the greatest care. The scoop protects the driver when used properly, if the driver does not follow procedure (reversing out of the danger zone) rocks will manage to hit them instead of the scoop.

What can managers and foremen do if their employees do stupid things? A mine can be safe, just depends on the ability of people to follow procedure. Safety regulations are there, management determines policy, procedure, employees must implement it.

As I said earlier in another thread, the IQ of most South-Africans is only 72, retards should not hold the fate of their lives in their own hands. Striking won't change much at all.

Go to www.simrac.co.za and learn more about Rockfalls and Rockbursts. All the research since 1967 is available for free download as pdfs.

There are more rockfall accidents attributable to drilling on the face than barring of rock and scoops. Most rocks fall because the hangingwall (roof) on the face is instable. So, you need to spend money and support it accordingly. Support is very expensive.

There are different mechanisms that induce a rockfalls depending on the stress environment. Mining has becomes more risky (depth, stress, mining of remnant pillars), yet, the mines have been slashing research work related to Rockfalls, Rockbursts and other related incidents.

Also, mine management subjects Mine Managers, Mine Overseas, Shift Bosses to a lot of unrealistic production targets which becomes a problem in terms of safety.

I once told a guy not to mine a certain part of a shaft pillar. He then went ahead to mine it because of high grade gold locked in there and there was a rockburst. He was under pressure to reach his targets.

To manage and/or prevent rockfalls accidents, you need:

- limit excess rock damage ahead of the work face (mine design)

- protecting people from rock falls in the workplace (mine support standards)

- promoting safe behaviour and work practices (mindset)

This is the area where scoop accidents would fall under

- providing warning of undesired trends (seismic and other monitoring)

- problem-solving through research and development into new technologies

I do not feel the industry is doing enough on this and I support the workers for their concerns. Its high time the industry wakes up else we gonna have another coalbrook disaster where over 400 people died in one incident.