Laid-off coal miner chooses to stay put

HUNTINGTON — Nine days after miner Robert Garcia survived a massive "bump" in the Crandall Canyon Mine that killed three of his fellow rescuers, he was laid off.

Garcia is one of 170 miners who found out Sunday their jobs were at risk and that they needed to make a major decision — stay in Utah and face unemployment or move to the Midwest and risk seeing very little of their families.

Bob Murray, who owns the Tower and West Ridge mines in East Carbon, offered the laid-off miners the option of transferring to one of his mines in Illinois or Ohio. Murray said he would provide free board and transportation to the miners, but miners would have to pay their own way if they wanted to return to Utah once every three weeks.

Garcia, who until Saturday worked at the West Ridge Mine, chose unemployment.

"Yeah, I had the opportunity to go east and work, but who wants to leave their family for that amount of time?" Garcia said. "Not me."

Less than two weeks ago, Garcia spent four days underground in dangerous conditions as a volunteer rescue worker in the Crandall Canyon Mine. His efforts stopped when mine officials said it would be too dangerous to keep digging underground toward six trapped miners — Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez.

Now that he doesn't have a job — he filed for unemployment benefits Monday — Garcia said the drastic change hurts.

"I should be bitter, and I am, but I'm not bitter toward Mr. Murray," Garcia said. "This is just a temporary thing. ... Once (the safety issues at the Tower Mine) are addressed, they'll let people back in after they do their inspections. It won't be long, I'm sure."

Leaders in Emery and Carbon counties also hope the mine closure won't last long. There are high hopes that the community will be able to cope with the job losses, which come at a time when the local economies may be able to absorb them.

While any significant loss of jobs can have major impacts, in the two counties, there is exceptionally low unemployment of approximately 3 percent. There are many jobs available in the construction or the oil and gas industries that could provide work for laid-off miners, said Mike McCandless, economic development director for Emery County.