Earnest Teaster Jr., an MSHA retiree retained by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to conduct an "independent" review of MSHA's activities before and during the disaster, said he learned Friday that Stickler had received authorization several weeks ago to review transcripts Teaster considered confidential.
A Labor Department spokesman defended the authorization on Saturday, saying the information would improve MSHA and that no agency employees have suffered any retribution for opening up to investigators.
Teaster said he and fellow investigator Joseph Pavlovich told the 59 MSHA officials they interviewed that "we would try to maintain their interviews as confidential as we could. We wanted an open exchange of information about what happened" at Crandall Canyon, where nine miners died and six were injured in two implosions of the mine walls last August.
What they found resulted in a 147-page report, released July 24, detailing numerous incidents in which MSHA failed to follow its own regulations in approving the mining plan and conducting the rescue operation.
Their report contained some unflattering portrayals of Stickler's performance during the ill-fated rescue effort in which three miners died, including an MSHA inspector.
It quoted inspectors saying Stickler was unapproachable and "just didn't seem like he wanted to be talked to," and that he threatened to fire them or send them home if they could not record measurements about the rescue advance the way he wanted them.
"One MSHA employee stated 'everybody got fired there at least once.' Another MSHA employee stated that Stickler threatened to 'fire us all. It wasn't just me. It was fire us all and get more players, if we couldn't get it in that book the way he wanted it.' Still another MSHA employee said 'I tried to give any explanation to [Stickler] as to why we're down or they had a bounce. He said very specifically 'I don't want to hear that. I want to know how far they've advanced and what the footage on the props is.' "
MSHA's 46-page response to the report said Stickler "did not fire, threaten to fire or to reassign anyone . . . The district manager did reassign MSHA employees during the rescue operation to best utilize their individual skills . . . The [investigators'] concerns may result from a misunderstanding by personnel of these reassignments during what was an innately stressful situation."
Teaster said Saturday he could not speculate on Stickler's motivation for wanting access to witness transcripts, but he is certain that future investigations will be hampered severely by this type of disclosure.
"I want to maintain the protection of these individuals. They said things we don't think Mr. Stickler should have access to," Teaster said. "Once he gets out of government, it's different. But I don't think it's appropriate for him, being the head of the agency, to find out who said what about him."
Labor Department spokesman David James responded that "we have no reason or intention to take adverse action against employees who cooperated with Mr. Teaster, and any thinking to the contrary is not based on any fact . . . It's Mr. Teaster's opinion."
He said the report by Teaster and Pavlovich belongs to the department, "and there's no prohibition in any statute or law that would prohibit us from disseminating that information, especially if it comes to the betterment of the agency."
Former MSHA director Davitt McAteer said the Labor Department's actions undermine its claims that the investigation was independent. But equally bad, he said, "they gave this to two trusted, very level-headed people and now . . . instead of focusing on the conclusions, there is an effort to determine where the information came from."
mikeg@sltrib.com
