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Ford Planning Major Layoffs; Recent Deaths Spark Investigations Into Mining Safety

Aired January 23, 2006 - 14:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The war on terror and domestic spying, President Bush insisting the latter is key to winning the former. He spoke just a short time ago, as you may have seen -- or he has been speaking, rather, for about one and a half hours, close to two hours, live at Kansas State University here in Manhattan, Kansas.
Kathleen Koch is traveling with him. She's been listening to the speech. Just for those that are just tuning in, a brief recap, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was quite a marathon session, Kyra. The president intending to speak about the war on terror and specifically defend his decision to allow the National Security Agency to domestically eavesdrop within the United States on calls into and out of the U.S. involving al Qaeda operatives.

The president obviously defended his position on that and then took roughly 13 questions from the audience. Very large audience, larger than normal and younger than normal, as you may have noticed. Lots of students, some 6,000 in the audience. Also some members of the U.S. military. They didn't get a chance to really ask questions, but they were there and present, some 800 who were just back from Iraq.

But quite a lengthy session, and the president sharing some personal moments with the audience -- Kyra.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, thank you so much. Traveling there with the president. We'll continue to monitor, of course, his route as he winds up there at Kansas State University. Meanwhile, straight ahead on LIVE FROM....

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When people get mad, they are more likely to do something.

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PHILLIPS: Outrage sparks action after two more coal miners die in West Virginia. This hour on LIVE FROM, we're talking mine safety reform with a man who knows what it's like to dig coal and pray for daylight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Straight to Tony Harris in the newsroom, working three stories for us right now. Tony, what you got?

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Kyra, a couple of things, menu items here for you.

First let's take you to Los Angeles, where a huge fire has been burning for, oh, I guess about the last 45 minutes, close to an hour now in an unoccupied commercial building. The call came in about 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Multiple fire units, as you can see, on the scene. Smoke, as you can see there, sort of reaching into the sky.

And occasionally there at the center of the screen, left or right, you take your choice, you can see the flames flickering as well. Kyra, I know you know that area really well, so let's try to pinpoint this for you. This is at Eighth and Central Streets in Los Angeles. All kinds of street closures, as you can imagine, as firefighters try to get a handle on this thing. No reports on injuries at this time. The building is -- and we understand the building was empty when this started.

About 100 firefighters working the scene on the ground, on the roof. Firefighters, as you can see, on ladders, trying hoses on those flames. KABC with those live pictures for us. Also, we've been listening to KTTV with those pictures.

We've also, Kyra, been listening to Ashley Smith as she just wrapped up her testimony on Capitol Hill this afternoon, taking part in a town hall meeting on methamphetamine. As you can see, the meeting is still going on. She talked about her past addiction to meth, which she described as on-again-off-again addiction that forced her to give up her daughter to a family member. Ashley says she know has her daughter back.

Brian Nichols, the accused Atlanta courthouse shooter, brought Ashley Smith to national attention. That was last March. Here she is, a short time ago, talking about the day Brian Nichols showed up at her door.

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ASHLEY SMITH, FORMER ATLANTA HOSTAGE: I was battling my addiction at that time, and I had meth in the house. And he asked me for marijuana. I did not have marijuana in the house that night, but I did have meth. And in the attempt to stay alive, the words "I have ice" came out of my mouth.

Immediately, I thought, oh, whoa, I can't give it to him. I know what it's done to me, it's made me make irrational decisions and here's somebody that's allegedly killed four people. I can't give it to him. But it was too late. What it was not too late for me to do was say no to the one thing I could never say no to for two years prior.

He asked me to use it with him, and it was a no-brainer for me. It was kind of like this is the last chance I'm going to get. Me being a spiritual person, too, I said this is my last chance. I can continue using this drug the way I've been using it and I will have no life. There will be nothing for me to live for. Or I can stop right now and help fight against it. And that's what I've been doing ever since that day.

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HARRIS: She told the entire story, Kyra, in her book "Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero." That book came out in last September. And that is Ashley Smith's day on Capitol Hill.

And we are waiting, Kyra, for an update on the condition of former president Gerald Ford, still in the hospital in Rancho Mirage, California. CNN's Kareen Wynter is there and we will talk to her when we get that update. We are expecting it still within this 2:00 Eastern hour. We'll bring that all to you -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, look forward to it. Tony Harris, thanks so much.

Well, have you driven a Ford lately? The nation's number two automaker doesn't ask that question anymore, and it's just as well. Fewer and fewer consumers could answer yes. Like its bigger rival G.M., Ford has been losing market share for years, prompting action it calls "strong medicine." Ford announced today it will cut up to 30,000 jobs, or up to a quarter of its North American workforce.

Ford also plans to shut down 14 facilities in North America including assembly plants in St. Louis, Atlanta, and Wixom, Michigan. Also closing , Batavia Transmission in Ohio and Windsor Casting in Ontario, Canada. CNN Ali Velshi is in Wixom, Michigan, outside the Ford plant there. What kind of reaction have you gotten, Ali?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have been talking to a steady stream of people coming off the shift here at the Wixom plant over my shoulder, Kyra. This is a plant that makes Lincoln Towncars and Lincoln LS's. We've had a mixed reaction. People knew this was coming.

A woman we just spoke to said the reactions ranged from sadness to anger to relief that the uncertainty is over. Some people have said that Ford might have seen this coming. Ford has lost market share for each of the last ten years, and now has the lowest market share it's ever had in its history.

This is the second major restructuring since Bill Ford took over the company back in 2001. At the end of 2001, January of 2002, they announced 30,000 layoffs. He is the great grandson of Henry Ford who founded Ford here in Michigan. And they are really hoping that this changes it.

Bill Ford said today that he wants to be -- he wants Ford to be a big company that thinks like a small company. He wants it to be oriented around what the consumer wants, not what they decide the consumer wants. Well, the consumers' wants have changed, Kyra.

Ford invented the SUV with the Ford Explorer. That had its worst month in history in November. The Taurus doesn't sell as well. Their mini vans aren't selling as well. They need to figure out what people want. In the process, 14 plants will be closed in the next six years. Seven of them announced today, 30,000 workers, 4,000 white-collar workers, salaried employees, on top of that.

This is going to be a major change for Ford Motor Company. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ali, talking about these layoffs and these closings, what do you know, and maybe I should talk about where you are right now about what these workers will walk away with financially.

VELSHI: In some cases seniority will allow them the ability to go to other plants and other factories. Easy to say, Kyra, except the reality is -- we spoke to somebody who had been here 28 years just a few minutes ago. Somebody else, 15 years. This is where they've made their livelihoods.

There is a plant outside of Atlanta closing, the Hapeville plant where -- Hapeville plant, where they make Ford Tauruses and Mercury Sables, Same thing, 10, 15 percent of the economy depends on these factories being here.

We are across the road from this factory. You can tell -- you can't see it for now. There's 'For Lease' signs here. There's a little mall that can't be for than a few years old. What's going to happen when the thousands of employees from this place don't work here anymore?

We have talked to a lot of people who say times are going to be very tough. When you are 40 or 50 years old and you have been an auto worker for 20 or 30 years, Kyra, I don't know what happens to you. That's the thing we have to remember sometimes, that for business reporters like me, it comes across as a number, but when you are out here on the ground, these are real people. They don't know what's coming next.

PHILLIPS: Ali Velshi will be talking throughout the next hour. Thanks, Ali.

One of the plants set to close right here in Georgia, despite years long campaign by state and local officials and the workers they represent. One of the Ford employees spoke with CNN affiliate WGCL.

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TINA STOWE, FORD PLANT WORKER: The tension is so tight in there right now that you could cut it with a knife.

Everybody's real quiet. They are not talking very much. They have got a lot -- it's a weight on everybody's shoulders around there. You think with the people like me that's only got 11 years, I don't want to start over, you know. That's a long time that I've got invested. I just think, you know, I will sit at home and collect my unemployment, you know, what benefits they give me or whatever. When that's up, I will go find me something else.

Ford's been good to me. It's given me everything I got. But without God, I wouldn't have Ford. I really hate to see this job go. I mean, because it's going to hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: We'll stay on top of the Ford story throughout the day.

Another mining accident in West Virginia, two more families in mourning, and for workers, management, and lawmakers, enough is enough. Today on Capitol Hill a Senate subcommittee is probing mine safety with a special focus on response times for rescue teams in both recent tragedies.

There's also the issue of safety violations at both the Sago and Aracoma mines.

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SEN. ROBERT BYRD, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: When the fines are being levied are they heavy enough? They don't seem to be. Too often industry just seems to pay the fines and go right ahead and keep doing the wrongs.

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PHILLIPS: West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin isn't waiting for Congress. He's hoping to fast track a bill in his own state legislature, and we mean fast. Key provisions include cutting response times for rescue teams, improving electronic tracking of miners and providing extra underground breathing gear.

Manchin wants lawmakers to consider, debate and pass the bill by the end of the day.

Making reforms that count, more on mine safety and today's hearings ahead. I will speak with a former miner and member of the United Mine Workers in the next hour of LIVE FROM...

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Tony Harris working a number of stories for us in the Newsroom. What do you have now, Tony?

HARRIS: Getting word of a school shooting in California. Let's take you to Vacaville, California. We've got some pictures we can show you. This is a Will C. Wood High School near Sacramento. A 14-year-old boy took a handgun to school. He showed it to a 15-year-old girl, a friend, and then he accidentally shot her in the gym. The 14-year-old is in custody. The girl was taken to the local hospital with what's described as a graze wound. Police aren't sure if the shooting was intentional, but they are sure that the girl was not an intended target.

School is placed on lockdown. Students confined to their classrooms, locked doors. We will check back with the school and get the status on the lockdown. Once again, a school shooting in Vacaville at a Will C. Wood High School. A 15-year-old girl seems to be in stable condition with what's described as a graze wound. Kyra, more to come.

PHILLIPS: Tony, thanks. Our other top story is Ford's big announcement.

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PHILLIPS: Twenty-one days, 14 lives lost in West Virginia coal mines. No one has ever called mining a low-risk profession, but these numbers are beyond any definition of acceptable loss.

Now labor, management and lawmakers all agree something must be done and a Senate subcommittee is listening. But where do you start, and how do you make changes that have an impact? Joe Main, a former miner and official with the United Mine Workers, joins us again to talk about mine safety and reforms that count.

Joe, good to see you again. And it's a shame that it takes 14 deaths to start talking about changing this industry. You have been listening to the hearings.

JOE MAIN, FORMER MINE WORKER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Your first initial thoughts?

MAIN: Well, I think it's clear that Congress must act to fix the shortcomings in mine safety in this country. There is an unquestionable need to shore up the safety net for coal miners if we're going to avoid these tragedies. And unfortunately, they just didn't start happening in the last few days.

They've been happening over a number of months and years. Unfortunately, we haven't had the attention paid to these events as we now have. And had we, I think some of the changes would have been in place that might have prevented some of these tragedies.

PHILLIPS: And one of those examples that you have made is talking about conveyor belts. We now believe that the fire in the mine started -- not Sago Mine, but the mine situation that happened most recently at Aracoma, that the conveyor belt caught fire. Now, you actually said that there was legislation or some type of ruling that was in progress to make them more fire resistant and it got passed off?

MAIN: Well, I think there's two points here. The fire at the Alma Number One mine, where two miners just perished, has some of the same problems that we found at Sago.

And one of those, as a starter, was the miners escape passageways that's supposed to be there by law was not there, at least they were not there for them to be able to effectively escape the fire. And they are supposed to be there for that purpose.

Having said that, there was regulations that was moving through the system that would have required mine operators to put in conveyor belting that basically would not burn. It was a much higher fire test that they had to pass. Unfortunately, in 2002, the agency saw that, as a regulation, it was no longer a priority and scrapped it.

PHILLIPS: And now look at this situation. It involved a conveyor belt that caught fire. Is it expensive to replace old conveyor belts with these fire resistant conveyor belts?

MAIN: Well, we have some mine operators in the industry that actually were doing that. We were working with them in some of these what we call mine petitions, where they were able to get variances, you know, from the Mine Act to use belt air for ventilation purposes.

And some of those did in fact put this newer type of belting in the mines, but I think the opportunity to have that nationwide died when the regulations that were moving forward were pulled by the government. And that's sad.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's listen -- no doubt, Joe. And let's listen to one thing that was brought up by David Dye, acting assistant secretary of labor for Mine Safety and Health with regard to when something goes wrong. Here's was an idea that he had. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID DYE, ACTING ASST. LABOR SECRETARY: With respect to withdrawal orders and closing down sections of the mine, that can be a very, very powerful tool.

In my opinion, even more powerful than citations because if you could have closed down a production area until the hazard is abated, that can cost a company in lost revenues anywhere from 50 to $150,000 for a single shift. So we did that 18 times, and that is a way that you can get the attention of an operator very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Joe, what do you think about that, a withdrawal order because, say, there were a number of complaints about this conveyor belt at the Alma Number One mine, and they would have shut it down and fixed it, this could have been prevented.

MAIN: Well, you know, I have to say this, that there is tools under the Mine Act that can be used to more effectively shut down mines when they become a danger, and that is called a pattern of violations. That was the next sequence of enforcement actions that the agency had available to them.

And I think there's a lot of folks today saying why didn't they use that tool> I would hope that Congress, in the actions they take, will issue legislation to beef up the enforcement of the mine safety laws in this country.

I hope they introduce legislation to add new safety standards that deal with these miners' escapeways, communications, mine rescue teams, communications to be used in case of an emergency, mine monitoring, and other important protections that miners need.

But I also hope that they engage in legislation that will overhaul the entire accident investigation process which, unfortunately, has allowed, I think, some of these serious problems not to be effectively identified following these mine accidents.

PHILLIPS: And real quickly, Governor Joe Manchin, three bills he is considering now that he wants to push for making mines safer by providing more rapid rescue response, allowing for better electronic tracking, and more underground oxygen. Can this be done? Are these good ideas?

MAIN: Absolutely. They are good ideas. They need to be done. They could have been done a year ago, five years ago, and some of these are intertwined with some of the 17 regulations that this administration pulled from action over the years.

If I have a chance -- I will give you a quick example. The explosion that we had at the Jim Walter's Number Five in Alabama in September of 2001, I had a miner, as we were doing the investigation there, come to me and say why couldn't we have a telephone system that's used at a mine next door which is a more elaborate state-of- the-art telephone system?

And the sad reality is they could have, and they could have had those in place at the Jim Walter's mine. Those miners lost the communications fairly quickly as did the miners at Sago. This technology was there to be just put into place. It was used at other mines. We have that kind of technology in place out there today that could be implemented in these coal mines to prevent these kind of tragedies.

PHILLIPS: Final thought. Obviously, with all the things that need to be fixed and need to be pushed forward to make the changes, like you suggested, let's hope that we see that follow through -- define -- Senator Byrd -- Robert Byrd had mentioned make the fines heftier. Do you agree with that?

MAIN: I think you need to make ...

PHILLIPS: Oh, we apologize. We lost our connection there to Joe Main. We'll try and connect back with him. He's a regular expert on our show with regard to mining issue. We'll try and get back in touch with him as we follow what happens with these new bits of legislation.

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