I am well aware that coal miners work in terrible conditions and that the work is back breaking.
But it may also benefit everyone to research the working conditions of oil field workers. I can supply a little of that research from knowledge i have picked up from people.
Oil field workers and oil related workers sometimes work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week during a turn around. At the very least they put in 10 and 12 hour days mostly 6 days a week. They work on drilling units where they handle pipe weighing hundreds of pounds. They work high in the air, rain, shine, snow or heat. They work in weld and fabrication shops where they are stooped down 10 to 12 hours a day welding tanks. Obviously that generates heat making the work conditions in summer when temps can get over 100 degrees during the day not only miserable but dangerous. In the winter the only heat in those shops is what is generated from the welding machines.
Those who work out in the field on the rigs are also working long days in the intense heat under the direct sun. In winter It is just as bad because temps can dip below zero with winds out of the north of about 10-50 miles an hour. They work through storms with lightening and tornadoes with no place to take shelter. They have to climb the oil derricks and then stoop down all day to weld pipe in place. Many are severely injured and killed when they fall off those derricks or the derrick collapses, or the well blows from the gases.
Everyone in this area knows someone who has been hurt or killed on an oil derrick. It's just that common. To the point of being almost an every day thing.
Then those who build the storage tanks have to weld them, fit them up which involves lifting steel into place and clean them. Many have been hurt building the heat exchangers for the refineries which can weigh up to 30,000 pounds and can come loose and swing around at any time. The tanks can explode during cleaning.
Those workers are breathing lethal chemicals from the welding rods all day causing most of them to end up with COPD. The arcs from the welds causes many of the to have diminished eyesight and some go almost totally blind.
My father was a pipefitter who was severely injured on the job. He was building heat exchangers when one came loose and swung around and hit him. He suffered two broken hips, a broken back, his pelvic bone was broken in three places and he had severe internal injuries. He was in a wheel chair for years and when he was finally able to walk he limped for the rest of his life. His is just one story out of thousands of stories just like it around here.
It is always big news when a mine collapses and miners are killed, injured or trapped. But it doesn't even warrant a line in the local paper when an oil derrick collapses and kills, injures or traps the workers. That is because it is so common here.
Working on oil rigs, and in oil and gas plants is hard, dangerous work. Two of our family are Boilermakers. They work on the huge tanks and the heat exchangers like your Pipefitter Dad did, bless his heart. One has has COPD and had 2 hip replacements. The other has a bad back. But they carry on, and are part of the huge army of hard workers who keep gasoline and fuel flowing, and heat into homes. Thank you for telling their story, which you did so well.