Union can't represent miners' families

HUNTINGTON, Utah, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The United Mine Workers Union of America cannot represent the families of six miners trapped in a Utah coal mine, federal regulators have ruled.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration said regulations allow non-union miners to designate the union as their representative in investigations, but there is no provision for relatives to do so, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

The six men were working a late-night shift at the Crandall Canyon mine when they were trapped by a collapse in early August. A seventh bore hole, drilled Thursday into the area where they were working, found no sign of life.

As hopes of a rescue have dimmed, the families of the missing men have been urging MSHA and the mine’s operator, Murray Energy, to recover the bodies. Three men were killed in an effort to tunnel into the mine.

The UMWA accused MSHA of being overly technical.

"MSHA requires that miners sign these papers, but the miners in question were unable because they are trapped inside the mine," a union spokesman said.