When the balance sheet looks bad, what’s a good executive to do? Cut worker benefits, of course! A bankrupt coal mining company just agreed to give millions of dollars in bonuses to its managers, as a reward for their clever financial strategy. I’d be more sarcastic if it wasn’t so damn tragic.

Here’s the article that breaks the story:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/16/3749331/coal-company-executive-payments/^

It’s not the first time when these mining conglomerates are meat-grinding their own employees. From disastrous oil spills^ to catastrophic dam breaks^, down to transforming pristine nature into apocalyptic landscapes^, there are but a few crimes against the ecosystem that mining companies haven’t committed yet – don’t ask for a list.

When are we going to wake up to the fact that our current economic model is not only unsustainable, but downright murderous? Mining companies are the scourge of the Earth. I suppose they have the excuse that they’re just following orders – it’s our society that “needs” their goods. The truly disgusting thing is that while all this is going on, politicians pad their bank accounts and judges look the other way.

It’s quite hard to be balanced when analyzing this subject, almost impossible to be diplomatic. I am aware that we should be understanding towards investors and other interested parties. But when a CEO is paid 8 million dollars, it’s very difficult to argue in favor of cutting health and disability benefits for the company’s workers. There’s only one name such practices can be given: slavery.

Unless we urge our governments to intervene, this situation will only get worse, because these corporations with bully mentality will only become more daring with every passing year. If they do this to their workers, it’s easy to extrapolate and realize that they’re applying the same budget cuts when it comes to maintenance and safety protocols. No wonder we’re hit by one environmental catastrophe after another.