The Chilean Miners
Seaula T. Pisimaka
BCOM/225
December 20, 2014
Michael Korman
The Chilean Miners
The Chilean miners. On the fifth of August two thousand and fourteen, 33 Chilean miners were stranded under two thousand miles of mountain. The mine tunnels caved in. With no communication between the miners and the rest of the world, there’s no knowing if they are alive or not. As the race against time starts with families hoping and praying, the rescue begins. Could you imagine yourself in the miners’ families’ shoes? Could you feel what each employee, coworker, and friends were going through at that moment they found out about the cave in? What do you think the potential needs of the families and the coworkers of the miners after receiving the message of the incident? What were the company’s actions taken before and after the message was delivered to ensure that it was received as intended? Here are some accounts that I found that the company has done and some opinions that I hope happened in support of the Chilean miners and their families.

In the first hour, hopefully, each family of the trapped miners were contacted or addressed by upper management or at the most, the president of the company, informing them of incident that happened at the mines. They need to ensure each family that the company is doing everything in their power, using every resources that they have in the rescue efforts. The company spokesperson would hopefully be giving up dates and progress reports to the public and to each of the families loved ones. The company has set up an area on site for families that wanted to be close, “Camp Hope” as it was called. Many families of the miners and supporters camped out at Camp Hope, making it a small village. “Camp Hope has zones for children to play, community bulletin boards for any posted updates or public information that needed to be put out. It also had a scheduled bus shuttle services to nearby cities”. (Franklin, August 2010)
In Camp Hope, they should have a family support system. Like the company providing a counselor on the spot for families that are having a hard time dealing with situation and also have a system set up for the survivors. With the survivors being trapped over two months, there’s definite life changes that are going to happen and not all may be able to cope with what they have gone through. With the needs of families being met, hopefully! How were the needs of the employees?

Not all that were effected were family to the miners, some were friends and co-workers. How were their needs being meet from the company? Within the first moments of the collapse, hopefully management didn’t a muster report. This would have had to be a priority number one. A report to account for who’s safe and alive and who’s missing and maybe trapped down below. With that being taken care of, the next step would be to ensure that the employees that were injured were taken cared of right away. From the president down to lower management would have to ensure that the employees were number one and that they were safe. The company would have to use every resource that they had to ensure a speedy and safe rescue of their trapped co-workers. The Management team would have to be up front with the employees. Making sure to state the facts and only the facts to the company workers. Being very careful what they say because as soon as they put out any statements, the rest of the world will know it too. They should have the president of the company address the updates and progress to each of his workers. Showing that he cares and have them see that he really cares for his workers. He needs to make them feel as if they were his own family members that were stranded. Let the people see how concern and sincere he is. Management would need to choose a spokesman to address the public. He should be a person that is aware of what he says to the public, stating only facts, and making sure