2 minutes silence at 2pm

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, December 2nd, 2010 - 11 comments
Categories: Mining - Tags:

The service and observance of silence is today. This announcement is from The Press yesterday:

Prime Minister John Key has asked for two minutes of national silence to remember the 29 lives lost at Pike River.

Key has asked Kiwis for the gesture at 2pm tomorrow at the start of the National Remembrance service in Greymouth.

The service, to remember the 29 men who lost their lives in the Pike River Mine, will be held at the Omoto Racecourse in Greymouth.

“I hope all of New Zealand will join with those of us at the service and observe two minutes’ silence at 2pm. This tragedy has affected all of us and tomorrow is an opportunity to join together in grief,” Key said.

11 comments on “2 minutes silence at 2pm ”

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  1. john 1
    2 December 2010 at 8:44 am

    Yes, I will certainly observe the silence and reflect on the loss of so many men in the prime of life.

    Personally,I am convinced that as workers if they’d been allowed to exercise their full rights to ensure their safety with proper gas monitoring systems and an alarm system,plus one of their number being a permanent on duty safety officer,they’d still be alive today because as methane climbed they would have been got out before the danger concentration was reached.I believe,others may disagree, they died because of a skewed emphasis on meeting production targets backed by profit, shareholders, and that share market As the Green’s have said Unions and/or workers should be on the inquiry,they’re not and this shows the skewed lack of respect for worker’s rights.I’ll reflect on that too during the 2 minutes.

    • jcuknz 1.1
      2 December 2010 at 8:57 am

      An inquiry of this sort is intended to find out the truth rather to be a platform for political posturing.
      Unions and workers will be able to make their submissions just as anybody else, with hopefully it resulting in a shake-up of the industry to try and avoid future accidents..

    • dilbert 1.2
      2 December 2010 at 9:14 am

      I’m not sure I would agree John. I heard Andrew Little on the radio early on during the “rescue” process and he was saying that there was nothing that the unions were aware of that would raise concern and went on to say specifically that there had been no complaints relating to safety or issues raised with the Safety group which the union was fully involved in.

      It does look like there will be good union representation at least from this NZ Hearly Article:
      “EPMU national secretary Andrew Little said the union requested a royal commission because of the higher status it was considered to have.

      Mr Little said the union would appear before the commission, and expected to call its own expert evidence.

      It was setting up a full legal team for the inquiry and he expected the union to represent the interests of miners and their families, regardless of whether the miners were union members.

      The union had asked for an expert in work rights and workplace health and safety to be the third commissioner.”

    • Swampy 1.3
      3 December 2010 at 8:53 pm

      The greens are just campaigning on the union bandwagon. As unions have a conflict of interest (their members are among the dead) it would not be appropriate for them to be directly represented on the commission

  2. Rich 2
    2 December 2010 at 2:01 pm

    I thought we had already had a silence.

    Are we going to have one for the Koreans that got killed on Yeonpyeong island?
    Or the Cambodians that died on the bridge?
    Or the 108 Chinese miners that died in the Longmei explosion in China?

    Is it because they was foreign?

    • Maynard J 2.1
      3 December 2010 at 12:33 am

      Yeah, we should never speak ever as people are always dying.

      And other stupid contributions to make or do we have a one-a-comment-thread limit?

  3. the pink postman 3
    2 December 2010 at 2:49 pm

    Perhaps, after the two minute silence, Key will go back to Parliament and change his anti -Union bill.Its ironic that the same day this disaster happened was the same day the Nats introduced the law that will stop unions visiting work sites. I also think it is time we gave the poor people of Pike River a break and some time on their own.

    • Tigger 3.1
      2 December 2010 at 3:39 pm

      Agreed, I’m hoping the media will finally stop feeding off their grief. Maybe they can start searching for Pansy.

      • jcuknz 3.1.1
        2 December 2010 at 4:14 pm

        I think that you will find that the bill only stops Union officials if the employer has a reasonable reason, it is not a blanket ban on officials visiting the workplace as TPP suggests. But I support his view about spelling the West Coasters once the memorial service is over. TV3 has been way over the top on this.

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