Labor Secretary Solis says better safety needed for oil spill cleanup crews, mine workers

DENVER – DENVER (AP) — Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is blasting BP and coal mining company Massey Energy for their recent disasters, saying they need to enact better safety measures and not make a profit "at the expense of killing" their employees.

At a conference of Latino government officials Friday in Denver, Solis said workers cleaning up BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill include minorities who often don't have the interpretation services they need to understand how to handle contaminants.

She says the workers are a "vulnerable population" that needs to be protected, and that her office is directing BP to give them proper training in their spoken languages.

Eleven workers were killed when BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20. An explosion 15 days earlier at a Massey mine in West Virginia killed 29 men.