Dave Feickert (13 December 1946 – 2 July 2014) was an international mines safety advisor. In his hometown

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

he was a director and chairperson of the Whanganui River Institute. In 2009 he was awarded a China Friendship Prize for Foreign Experts .

Early years

Feickert attended secondary school at Wanganui Technical College (now Wanganui City College). As a Quaker he embodied the core values of the Quaker Movement. He applied them in his work in the labour movement.

1983 – 2003

Industrial Relations officer and Head of Research with the

National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a trade union for coal miners in Great Britain, formed in 1945 from the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). The NUM took part in three national miners' strikes, in UK miners' strike (1972), 197 ...

and later, European officer of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

in Brussels.

China

Encouraged the partnership of the European Commission in Brussels with the Chinese State Administration for Work Safety, SAWS.

Pike River Mine, New Zealand

Dave Feickert, along with David Creedy and Bob Stevenson, former Principal Inspector of Mines in UK, offered to work on behalf of the families of the victims of the

Pike River Mine disaster The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island following a methane explosion at approximately 3:44 pm ...

, to formulate a plan to recover the bodies of those killed. He also worked with former chief mines inspector Harry Bell MNZM on the same problem. He also was a witness at the Royal Commission Inquiry into the disaster which was set up November, 2010. ote that attempts to bring his main submission into the public domain have been thwarted as a 100-year embargo has been applied to many of the submissions to the Royal Commission inquiry.

References

1946 births 2014 deaths People from Whanganui People in mining People educated at Whanganui City College {{NewZealand-bio-stub