The Life Value is the Core of the Safety Culture of The Coalmine
Mr.Sun FengKai
No.2 Division,Shanxi Coalmine Safety Supervision Bueeau
Abstract :The article expounds the premise of strengthening the safety of coalmine are loving for, expecting and protecting the safety of coal miners' life. It points out that the life value is the core of the Safety Culture of the coalmine and gives some effective methods for improving coal miners' life value.
The Safety Culture of the coalmine is a new concept. Exploring this concept, we must catch its core, which is the coal miners' safety. The safety is the whole thing, which in fact means life is the most important thing. Then the core of the Safety Culture of the coalmine is the life value definitely, that is, calling on loving for life, cherishing life, protecting life and showing respect to life and improving the life quality. This should be the eternal topic of the Safety Culture of the coalmine. Therefore, concerning on this topic, this article will explore from four aspects.
1.The life value of coal miners is underestimates greatly
The life value includes a). Cherishing life; b). Respecting life; c). improving the life quality; d). Improving the monetary value of life; e). conferring people's life value posthumously. These five aspects is a whole thing and no one should be absent. Of course, the most important thing in these five aspects is cherishing life, which is the essence of the life value.
People's life is the loftiest thing. The right of existence is the core of human rights. Any case involving human life is of supreme importance and life is priceless. While, it is a pity that in the dark dangerous working places, working overloaded, the coal miners' life value is underestimated and ignored greatly. From ancient times to the present, there is no exception.
It is recorded in the Collected Works of Qing Fen Pavilion "The coal miners are living miserably. After a whole day's hard work, they could only get two or three hundreds cents. The owner of the coal pit or the taskmaster exploits miners willfully. No one would pay attention to coal miners' hunger and cold, even their illness. And they are confined and tortured. These people treat miners' lives as if they were not worth a straw. The poor coal miners are not treated as human beings.' The magistrate of Fen Zhou in 1884 was shocked by these phenomena and said angrily: 'those kinds of behavior offend against Heaven and reason. Even the Heaven would not bless them!'
'Coal miners are not treated as human beings', 'Coal miners' living are not good as mules and horses (Li Dazhao)'. All those words are the real portrayal of miners' life value in the old society.
Nowadays, the life value of coal miners has changed intrinsically compared to the feudalistic societies, which is beyond doubt. However, compared with the different industries, the coal miners' life value is still underestimated greatly. It can be embodied from following aspects.
● The working condition of coal miners is the most arduous and dangerous. The death number of coal miners is always high, which is the No.1 in all the industries in the whole country---every year then thousands of coal miners died. The coal miners make great contributions to the whole country and society, paying grievous life price, but the social status of them is not greatly improved, the death accident in the mine pit is not obviously decreases, and the death number is not deduced by a big margin.
● The coal miners' salary and welfare has been fluctuating at the low level for a long time, which is lower than the social average level. In some poor area, the miners' month income is only three hundreds yuan, which is not more than the change of average month income in some high-income industries. This is a very strict social reality faces with coal miners.
● The compensation of coal miners' death or disablement caused by the working accident is very low, which could not be compared with other industries or traffic accidents. And its compensation is far lower than that of the victims of political incidents.
● After coal miners' died or hurt, they could not get the corresponding respects. The activities, such an, visiting, conveying sympathy, mourning, disseminating and commemorating have never been carried out in many coalmines, especially in small coalmines. The small coalmines will not spare even a glance for these activities. It is distressing that those miners' contribution to the whole country and society are ignored completely.
● Now there are many hidden perils that threaten coal miners' safety. For example, some people withhold information on the actual situation and settle it privately; some people sign a life-and-death contract in private; some unit do not give coal miners job-specific training; some people open the mine that has been closed; some people organize the production illegally; some people work in the mine pit on the sly and pay no attention to the safety; some people mine coal overstep the boundary that was limited by the government; some people open small mine in large mine pit in order to get extra money, which, called 'private treasure', cause exploration finally; some government office workers open mines by themselves and become the shareholders, which caused corrupt dealings. From all these phenomena, we see that there are still many people who absolutely pay no attention to coal miners' safety, so that events of acting with utter disregard for human life have happened for many times. For example, there is a extraordinary serious disaster shocked the whole nation. As masters of mines seek sudden huge profits, the coal miners' life value is trampled flagrantly.
● Now the peasants instead of workers form the miners' troop. This great change just happened because coal miners' life safety is underestimated greatly. And this is a reality that we must face in the process of building up coal miners' Safety Culture.
All the six phenomena do not match with coal miners' contributions and coal industry's position in the national economy. Furthermore, in runs counter to the socialist distribution principle, that is, there is no difference between the division of work and social position, every one gets his/her salary according to the working performance and more pay for more work; it runs counter to the spirit of humanism, that is all man are created equal and their life values are created equal, too.
All men are created equal, and their life values are equal, too. This is a truth, but it is only a theory. All men are created unequal and their life values are different. This is a fallacy but it is a reality. Anyway, we live in the real world; we face this reality directly and even accept this difference that should not be accepted. Yet, we call on intensely--- please respect coal miners' lives; please improve coal miners' life values; please minimize the inequality that is foisted on coal miners--- this is our helpless choice.
2.The life value is the essence of the coal mine's Safety Culture
Regarding the life value as the essence of the coalmine's Safety Culture, we have sufficient reasons.
● Law has affirmed coal miners' life value fully, and protecting coal miners' lives has became the aim of making many laws. For example, the goal of the Law on mine' safety is 'protecting the mine's safety when production, preventing accidents, protecting miners' safety and promoting the development of mining industry.' The purpose of the Coal Law is ' asking the governments in different levels, concerned departments and coal enterprises to adopt some measures to strengthen the labor safety, protecting coal miners' safety and health… and the nation takes special protecting measures for coal miners who always work in mine pit.' All these legal provisions define the coal miners' life value.
● The Party always devotes much attention to coal miners' safety. For example, Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi led the An Yuan Coal Miners' Strike, whose direct reason is that three coal miners died in a working accident. Now at the beginning of the 21st century, the Party and the government attach unprecedented importance to coal miners' safety. And for this problem, the Party and the national leaders have made many important commentaries. We may see that coal miners' safety has caused the attention of the whole society.
● The coal industry has set up and amplified integrated rules and regulations and safety rules, which has formed the perfect safety-managing network. Especially in recent years, the safety supervision system has been formed, the safety supervision committee has been set up and the system of investigating and affixing the responsibility for an accident has been presented to the public. All those methods make the awareness---safety first--- accepted publicly gradually. Coal miners' life value has been arousing people's attention more and more.
● Improving coal miners' life value has the great social and political meanings. And it plays a positive role in improving the society's stability and social civilization. Coal miners are a large group, which played an important role in the revolution and war ages and it is still one of the main force of industrial workers. So improving coal miners' life value will make great contributions to the socialist image, social spiritual civilization and economic development.
All in all, only when we catch the essence of coal mine's Safety Culture, that is coal miners' life value, could we catch the basic thing and promote the work as a whole; otherwise, we would take the branch for the root.
3.Improving coal miners' life value, we should break through some misunderstandings
The largest obstruction in improving coal miners' life value, or we may say, in confirming the important position of coal miners' life value in the coalmine's Safety Culture, is that there are some misunderstandings of it. Those misunderstandings are as fallows:
1)More dangerous it is, more forward we should be--- a kind of heroism
In the special times, such as, in the just war, rushing to deal with an emergency or providing disaster relief, etc, when we risk our lives to help others and could win finally, then we should do it, and we has been calling on this spirit of sacrifice. But we must realize it soberly that the state of production and non-production are different. In the normal production situation of coal industry, we shouldn't call on this kind of heroism. Even though we dealing with an emergence in the mine, the premise must be guaranteeing the rescuers' safety. In the past, there were several accidents, in which the victims were not saved, and the rescuers also sacrificed their own lives, which enlarged the death number. Those bloody lessons should make coal managers understand that the heroism is not suitable in the coal industry. In contrast, it should be---facing the danger, withdrawing is the most safety way.
2)A fish and a bear's paw could not get at the same time. This is a view thought safety production is self-contradictory
Practice proves that this pair of contradiction has been settled in many coalmines successfully. It is no doubt that safety is the first. And production and safety complement each other. Making great efforts to the safety could reduce the accident, stabilize the public feelings, reduce losses, raise profits, promote production, which has became the truth definitely.
3)Struggling for a career will cause sacrifice definitely and death is unavoidable
It is true that struggling will cause sacrifice, but we must judge whether it is worthy of sacrifice. In the article 'Serving For the People', Mao Zedong stated clearly; 'Struggling will cause sacrifice and there will be death…but we should try our best to minimize those unnecessary sacrifice.' The sacrifice just caused by paying no attention to the safety in production is unnecessary and is not worth it. And the death that should have been avoided happened should not be forgiven. Some people think that high death rate in the coal industry just admits that dying for work is normal and reasonable. And then we could ignore coal miners' safety. This viewpoint is not reliable. In fact, the death rate should not be the excuse for paying no attention to safety, on the contrary, it is just used to judge the result of working on coal mines' safety by making an estimate of the real situation of coal miners' death in working place. In fact, promoting the reduction of accidents and the decrease of the death rate is the starting point and the only purpose of estimation.
4)Death for earning money, so there is nothing to regret. This viewpoint denies the coal miners' contributions
It is natural that workers get pay. But it is not reasonable to deny their contributions to the national economic construction just because it. The coal miners are engaged in coal production in the special conditions, and their contributions to the whole nation is great, so they should be respected by the whole society. The view that died miners died for earning money is completely wrong, which do not think about coal miners' contributions absolutely.
All those misunderstandings are harmful for improving coal miners' life value, so we must correct them from the depth of the mind effectively. And only by extricating the trammels of those misunderstandings could coal miners' life value be improved and the important position of coal miners' life value is set up in the coal mine's Safety Culture.
4.Effective methods of improving coal miners' life value
According to the meaning of coal miners' life vale, there are four effective methods of improving coal miners' life value.
1)Calling on loving for life, respecting life, protecting life, heightening safety awareness and putting an end to working accidents
Realizing those aspects, we should bring every positive factor into play.
One is promoting coal miners' awareness of protecting themselves (including their relatives' cooperating safety awareness). Coal miners must protect their own lives first of all, eliminate some behaviors, which would risk their life, such as, working in violation of the rules, smoking in the mine pit, etc. They must realize that doing these are just like committing suicide or killing others, which would do harm to the family and the society.
The other is that the governmental charged departments of all levels and coal mine's managers must have the safety awareness. They must distinguish the safety responsibility, add the safety input, implement the safety measures, strengthen safety training and make great efforts of safety preventing, managing, supervising and accidents' handling. We must realize two changes: one is changing the view that paying attention to safety means responsible for leaders to the view we should love for life, respect life and protect life; the other is changing from the aspect of being afraid of taking safety responsibility to the aspect that we should defend the honor of rules and regulations, the honor of the Party and the nation; we should safeguard the basic benefits of the masses and implement the important thoughts of the 'Three Representatives'. There is a phenomenon that the goal of safety production of a county, a city and a province is not to trouble the county Party committee, the county government, the city Party committee, the city government, the provincial Party committee, the provincial government respectively. And there is another phenomenon. There is a rule that the accident with 10 people's death is regarded as an extraordinary serious accident, which must be reported to the national charged department. So in some small coalmines there is a rule that the people who work in the mine pit should not more than 9. This is a typical example that the leaders are afraid of taking the responsibility. Furthermore, I must stress those coalmines' managers, supervisors and workers must obey the Coalmines' Safety Rules strictly. The safety rules that are made with blood should not be tested with blood.
2)Calling on improving coal miners' life quality, improving conditions in which they are living and working and respecting their personalities
The coalmines' managers and concerned departments should get down from their high horses. They should show their affections, love and kindness to coal miners, respecting them, their working and their personalities. They must care about coal miners, cherish them, and help them warm-heartedly. They could not teat coal miners as working tools or the tool just creating wealth for the enterprises or individuals.
3)Calling on improving the monetary values of coal miners
Life is priceless, which is a truth; life has price, which is a reality. Improving the coal miners' monetary value is increasing their salary and welfare with different ways, increasing the compensation of coal miners' death and hurting. This depends on the efforts taking by the coalmines and the government altogether. The forty-second rule in Chinese Constitution says clearly 'By using different ways, the nation would create conditions for employment, strengthen the protection of labors, improve working conditions, and increase the labors' payment and welfare on the basis of promoting production.' From this we see, improving coal miners' working and living conditions, increasing their salary and welfare are the requirement of law, which are reasonable and legal and nothing can be criticized.
4)Calling on the conferring of coal miners' life value after they died in working
The coal miners died when working (except the workers who work and command in violation of the rules) have sacrificed them for the coal industry and rendered great service for the coal industry and the nation. So it is right to confirm their contributions and it must be done like that. After the coal miners died for working, the coalmine should take activities to mourn them. And for the advanced individuals, we should publicize their deeds and launch memorial activities. We should build memorial tablets for them writing inscription and epitaph on it and build consoling tablets. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China and the beginning period of it, many coalmines did this, which had good effect. For example, an epitaph recorded in Qu Yang County Annals is very moving. On 23, July 1949, an extraordinary serious explosion accident happened in Xiao Xipo coalmine, in Qu Yang County, Hebei province, which caused by workers' smoking and 71 people died. The memorial tablet carved with inscription recorded: 'after the 71 class brothers encountered this disaster, their parents despaired; their wives are parted with them forever. The young and the old cried grievously… the government delivered 430,000 jin rice for their relatives and build tombs for them in order to memories them…. All those died coal miners has devoted themselves to the nation and the revolution.' In one word, all these activities are to admit that all those coal miners sacrificed for wok. This is the natural requirement of improving coal miners' social status and their life value, which have significant meanings.
Finally, the coalmines' managers and the officers working for coal mines' Safety Culture should review Comrade Mao Zedong's article Serving For the People, which has an enlightening effects for improving coal miners' life value. In 1944, the battles of fighting against the Japanese were catching on like fire throughout the country, and everyday hundreds and thousands patriots died in the battlefield. On 5, Sep. of that year, in the site of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China---An Sai County in the north of Shaanxi Privince (a relative peaceful place)---a mine pit collapsed and one people died. The "small" accident roused the attention of Comrade Mao Zedong, who made the famous speech Serving For the People. It shows that Comrade Mao Zedong could distinguish clearly between the sacrificed states of production and non-production. When affirmed the meaning of Zhang Side's sacrifice, Comrade Mao Zedong said sincerely: 'we should try our best to minimize the unnecessary sacrifice.' It is the first enlightenment. The second is Comrade Mao Zedong praised highly of the soldier's death, who died of the safety accident. Comrade Mao Zedong thought dying for people's benefits; his death is heavier than Tai Mountain. The third is Comrade Mao Zedong initiated the opening of memorial meeting for died people, which showing respect to people's life and their life values. Though this great document inculcated several generations, most people only remembered the words 'Serving For the People'. In fact, it is a pity to understand the surface meaning of the words 'dying for people's benefits; his death is heavier than Tai Mountain', but ignore the deepen meanings.
All in all, the construction of coalmine's Safety Culture has many things to do in improving coal miners' life value and will play important role in it. It is a culture construction, so attention should be given to dissemination, leading and exerting an imperceptible influence on people's thinking. We should make use of every effective publicity methods to disseminate coal miners' life value, calling on loving for life, cherishing life, protecting life, respecting their lives and personalities. We should appeal improving coal miners' working and living conditions, increasing their salary, welfare and compensation levels. We should promote, organize and publicize the confirmation of workers died for working and take activities to mourn, memorize, and disseminate them. Finally in one words paying attention to coal miners' safety, and their lives, improving their life value are the essence of coal mine's Safety Culture construction and the unavoidable responsibility of officers of the construction as well.
Life is beautiful; please cherish coal miners' lives just as cherish our own lives.