I like how stories like this always leave out corruption and mismanagement of the mines themselves. Mines are a hot spot for upper management and owner corruption.
Historically, coal is an industry filled with -to put it lightly- labor disputes due to exploitative conditions [1][2].
Today, the industry in decline by any definition and as companies try to awl out some sort of profit they cut corners which create unsafe conditions. When accidents happen, the company will skirt responsibility to the very end (someone else has a nice link here [3]). The "Last Week Tonight" on coal from a few years ago (start at 8:39[4]) goes through some rather aggressive coal executives who don't want to fairly compensate workers. Here are a few recent coal disasters you can read about: [5,6]
