MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The decision to keep Mine Safety and Health Administration offices open is being met with wide approval, but concern remains about what else will be restored or what’s next to be cut.
UMWA Treasurer Brian Sanson said they would like to have an open line of communication with the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Since cuts were announced at the beginning of April, when new silica standards were to be introduced, they have had little or no communication with the leaders of the Trump administration.
“We would like to see more transparency because we don’t know what else is on the chopping block,” Sanson said Friday on MetroNews Midday. “We obviously have issues with the silica rule that haven’t been addressed.”
Word surfaced late in the week that the Trump administration had reversed a previous decision and was going to keep several dozen MSHA field offices open.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito has raised the issue with Secretary Kennedy several times and released the following statement:
“I am glad to hear that many of West Virginia’s MSHA offices will remain in place. I have raised this issue directly with Secretary Chavez-DeRemer because I was concerned about the impact these closures could have on mine safety and workers’ access to support. Keeping these offices open is the right decision – and a win for miners, inspectors, and the communities they serve,” Senator Capito, Chairman of the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, said.
Government Affairs Specialist at Appalachian Voices Quenton King said the decision is a move in the right direction, but it is merely correcting a pending mistake. The proposed cut of the field offices could have resulted in tragic consequences for the miners and their families.
“MSHA has been long underfunded, and trying to remove 30 offices in the coalfields of Appalachia was going to be disastrous,” King said. “So, we’re happy the government realized the mistake before the cuts actually took place.”
Sanson said there is a distinct timeline between mine disasters over the decades and the passage of mine safety regulations. Every rule, regulation, and law was gained through sacrifice, and closing these offices would be going back in time to a dangerous mining era.
“An insult to the miners who lost their lives and the families they left behind who advocated for these changes in the law,” Sanson said.
The voices of advocates have brought back more than 100 jobs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety (NIOSH), and now the MSHA victory. King said their organization will continue to fight the cuts alongside the workers and their families.
“Right after they announced the closure of the MSHA offices, they also announced they were going to lay off employees at NIOSH who work on Black Lung disease, and we rallied together, and that was reversed, but there still are employees at NIOSH in the Mine Research Division who are still laid off, and we’re still trying to make that happen,” King said.
“A lot of research comes out of NIOSH that MSHA puts into practice when enforcing and changing codes within the law,” Sanson said.
Story by Mike Nolting, WAJR