Essay Pad500 - Assignment 1 - Centralia No. 5

Another possible path of action that Scanlan could have taken was to make his concerns public. Scanlan’s job is to serve as a public official. Therefore, in my opinion, it is all right in certain instances to make the public aware of potential dangers that may affect them and/or their loved ones. Scanlan had a lot of information and notes stating that the mine had hazardous conditions, were unsafe, and could possibly explode if the correct actions were not taken. This is the type of information I feel like the public needs to be made aware of. This could have possibly caused an outcry from the public to correct these conditions, as they are concerned about the well being of the people in the community and its workers.

In his book, “Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War”, Thomas G. Andrews construes the trajectory of a unique labor movement of the southern Colorado coal workers. The labor movement is unique as it integrates the social, ecological and industrial context of the strike for a captivating narration of the Ludlow massacre. Andrew’s account is valuable as he insists that credible conclusions must be grounded in complete and sophisticated provenance as opposed to oversimplified explanations. The intent of this response paper is to analyze the burdensome nature of obtaining coal, substandard pay and the treacherous working conditions. Secondly, the paper discusses the ways which helped employees to achieve autonomy and solidarity.

3. Who or what caused the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, and why do you think so?

The manager will need to ensure that they have the correct level of rapport with their employee. Too familiar in nature may be misconstrued as forward and harassing in the wrong context. However no personal rapport whatsoever may provide the receiver of the information with the impression that the sender of the information is just not interested. A fine line must be weighed up for each individual. When a good rapport has been achieved, then the person will uncritically accept suggestion or advice which they are given.

Had both of these courses of action been properly discussed and challenged before an ultimate decision, Ashmark could have saved itself much heartache.

Marcovitch, S. G., Gold, A., Washington, J., Wasson, C., Krekewich, K., & Handley-Derry, M. (1997).

If the government would have stepped in and made laws protecting these people, then the relationship between employees and employers would have been pleasing to both sides. Improving the economy, this would have prevented many strikes, riots, and disputes. Such as the Pullman Strike, it was a nasty act of violence that affected the economy by creating negative views on large companies (Document E). Strikers wrote strong letters using statements like, “We struck at Pullman because we were without hope” (Document E). They did this to convey that it was their last resort to convince upper management for realistic hours, work conditions, and wages. The relationship between the two sides influenced economy in a negative way that could have been averted with a government that took action instead of letting it get out of

The Scanlon plan created problems within the company and questions had to be formulated and put into place to be addressed before any major decisions could be made. Although the Scanlon plan was a good plan, it was not a “one size” fits all plan. Changes needed to be made and what type of changes had to be addressed. Some of the other difficulties facing the company was, no

A third failure in understanding the operational environment occurred when Sears coordinated the delivery of rice from Haidho to the stricken area in Sarkhan. His lack of understanding of the Sarkhanese and communist tactics was reciprocated by his subordinates. The latter became evident when the rice bags were labeled as if coming from the communists and no USIS employee realized what it meant. In addition, there was no effort from US employees to talk or interact with locals at the destination. The confusion led the Sarkhanese to believe that the rice bags in fact were provided by the communists.

Therefore, there is a number of things that could have been done I do not see a right or wrong answer for the course of action that could have been taken. Cooper (2009) states that” Use whatever methods or techniques are necessary to move beyond either-or thinking, because until at least the most significant alternatives are acknowledged, you risk overlooking the best solution”.

Secondly I believe Scanlan could have organized a strike for the workers of the mine. Inspector Scanlan was a former mine working who understood exactly what the mines workers were experiencing. Inspector Scanlan was a very honest man who did not seek to gain favoritism by hierarchy. Inspector Scanlan was focused on doing his job the correct way. Inspector Scanlan was not interested in bribes or becoming wealthy. I believe Inspector Scanlan had the mine workers interest at heart. Inspector Scanlan knew nothing was going to be done due to how corrupt the system was. Scanlan should have informed the workers to strike due to how dangerous the conditions of the mines were. A strike would have created headlines. A strike would have kept the workers out the mine until changes were made to ensure their safety. The owners of the mine would make changes because they needed the workers to operate the mine and

3. Evaluate Gordon Biersch's efforts to raise outside capital. What would you have done differently?

There are certain things though that we would have done differently even without any of the additional information we gathered later on. First of all we would have used the system very carefully. Often we don’t get a second chance to rectify things and therefore we need to exercise due caution at every step we take. We also would have examined each piece of information diligently. There seemed to be a lot of loose ends and therefore it was more important to be cautious and utilize any given information.

6. There are several points in this narrative where there were opportunities to fix the problem. Pick out at least two examples of points at which moral imagination and or moral courage by the various participants could have headed off the catastrophe. Indicate the person and what they could have done to fix the problem.

3. What would you have done if you had been the controller and had made recommendations to disclose the reversal of the reserves?