Hunter Hicks

As a section mechanic/electrician I am responsible to report to my shift foreman before the start of my shift to gather the information that I will need for my shift. My responsibility is to keep the equipment on the section running. If a piece of machinery goes down I communicate with my foreman to get the parts needed to fix the equipment. I am also responsible for filling out job safety analysis forms and communicating them with my co workers. Before we start a job we gather to talk about the risks/hazards that we have. At the end of each shift i communicate with the oncoming mechanic to let them know if there is any equipment down that needs to be worked on.

During my time of employment at Cumberland coal mine I held two different positions. The first position I held was a Roof Bolter on the side of the continuous miner. I was responsible for installing 8 and 16 foot resin roof bolts to support the roof and ensure the safety of my co workers. The second position I held was Longwall Mechanic. I worked along side a production crew on the longwall face. My job duties ranged from changing blown hoses, jacks and servicing the longwall shearer. I was expected to communicate with my co workers on the radio/telephone to communicate where they were having problems so that i could go to that location and fix the problem.

During my time of employment at LCT Energy I was a section equipment operator. The list of equipment I ran was roof bolter, scoop, buggy, and miner. I reported to work each day and my foreman would let me know what I would be doing for the day. We had pre shift safety meetings to address any hazards that we may encounter through the day and how to work safely around them. At the end of each shift the following crew would come into the section to relieve us and start there shift. We would take a few minutes to talk to the oncoming crew about any safety hazards that we had encountered throughout our work day.

During my time of employment at Murray Energy I was a General Inside Laborer. This meant that I could do just about every different type of job. I shoveled belt, helped on belt moves, helped out on the mining sections, set timber post and also did track work. I was expected to report to work each day and get my work list from the shift foreman. I regularly worked with two-three other people. Before each job we filled out a JSA and discussed how to get the job done efficiently and safely. After each shift we reported to our shift foreman what jobs we had completed off the list he gave us at the start of our shift.

I started my mining career with Corsa Coal as a red hat. I worked the hoot owl shift moving belt and power, roof bolting and running scoop. Each night when I reported to work my shift foreman would tell me what section i was going to and what was to be completed that night. I worked safely with my co workers to complete each job safely.