Jobs Reality

On most any day, you are likely to hear a mouthpiece of one of the life destroying longwall mining companies claiming to be a friend of the worker. That the company is all about providing good paying jobs for people over so many years. Of course, anyone who is willing to look at the numbers from 1850 to present, knows full well that those jobs have been declining at a faster and faster rate.

Well, looks like that downward spiral is going to take a big drop. In fact, the underground jobs in the longwall business are going to disappear altogether. And no, I don't mean that those companies are going to stop their destruction of the planet we live on.

Those great jobs creating companies are looking at longwall panel machines that require no humans under the surface whatsoever. Welcome to jobs reality. The way it has always been. Not admitted to. But, the way it has always been.

Jobs reality is where the company mechanizes whenever and whatever they can, eliminating as many people as possible. Where management can work machines day in and day out with no breaks, no overtime and no worry about mine safety or health issues. Profits get larger and those pesky humans disappear from the scene.

Those aren't the things CONSOL, Massey or Peabody talk about. And, rightly so. That would mean telling the truth. And, we know damned well those folks are about some very basic things, dollars specifically, but the truth isn't one of them.

No, they will continue to talk of job creation as if it were true. But, don't be misled for an instant. Job reality, that is to say getting humans out of the equation as quickly as possible, is where they are headed. And, in their world, the faster the better.