Litigation

Protestors Converge on Massey Annual Meeting

By Peter Hardin

At the annual stockholders meeting of Massey Energy, scores of protestors called Tuesday for the resignation of CEO Don Blankenship or for his prosecution on issues involving the environment and workplace safety.

Hundreds of people sang, held signs, and chanted outside the meeting convened in Richmond, Va., according to an Associated Press article, and they included a mix of union representatives and anti-mining activists.

Inside the meeting, Blankenship told stockholders, “We reject all accusations that this company is indifferent to safety.” Through a subsidiary, Massey owns the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, recently the site of the worst mining disaster in four decades.

Blankenship spent $3 million in 2004 to help elect a state Supreme Court justice. That led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Caperton v. Massey, that large campaign expenditures could create an unacceptable potential for bias. You can learn more about Caperton from Gavel Grab, and from Justice at Stake?s resource page about the case.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 18, 2010 (boomark / email).