Murray offers miners temp jobs in Midwest

GALATIA, Ill., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Murray Energy Co., an owner of the coal mine where six miners are trapped, offered miners at another Utah mine temporary jobs in Ohio and Illinois.

The company released a statement offering the work to 170 employees at the Tower Mine near Price, Utah, The Southern, an Illinois newspaper, reported. The Tower Mine has been closed while the company makes sure it is safe.

"While we know of no flaws in the system at the Tower Mine and have operated it without some of the improvements recently made without any incident, in view of the unprecedented seismic activity at Crandall Canyon Mine, we want to be absolutely certain that in the event of seismic activity at the Tower Mine, our miners are fully protected," Murray Energy Chief Executive Officer Bob Murray said.

The miners would work for three weeks in the Midwestern mines and then take a week off.

Efforts are still being made to reach the trapped men at the Crandall Canyon mine. Nothing has been heard from them since the collapse at the beginning of August.