House Democrats Introduce Mine Safety Reforms
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Democrats reintroduced legislation today to bring our nation’s mine health and safety laws up to date, give mine safety officials the ability to effectively protect miners’ lives, and hold mine operators accountable for putting their workers in unnecessary danger.
The Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 1579) introduced today is similar to legislation brought to the House floor last year.
“The Upper Big Branch disaster laid bare the loopholes that riddle our mine safety laws. These loopholes allowed dubious mine operators like Massey Energy to violate mine safety rules repeatedly with impunity,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “There are things we must do right now so that every miner is able to return home safely to their families at the end of their shift. Congress can’t simply wait for the next tragedy to act.”
“Our miners do some of the most grueling and courageous work imaginable,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. “One year after Upper Big Branch, it’s unconscionable that we haven’t done more to ensure they are safe on the job. It’s time to hold negligent companies responsible and give our miners the protection they deserve.”
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) also joined Miller and Woolsey in introducing the legislation today.
On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion ripped through Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, killing 29 miners. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) investigators found there was a widespread failure to comply with mandatory rock dusting standards necessary to prevent coal dust explosions and dysfunctional safety equipment, such as water sprays, necessary to reduce methane and coal dust ignitions where the explosion originated. The mine’s history of repeated violations despite large fines, and the preliminary MSHA findings, illustrate a mine that was operated in a reckless manner and in utter disregard of mandatory safety standards.
In the only hearings with miners and Upper Big Branch families last year, miners testified before the Education and Labor Committee that management would retaliate for reporting violations or stopping unsafe work. A recent criminal indictment alleged that senior security officials at Massey ordered security guards to provide advance notice of mine inspections, so that violations could be corrected before inspectors arrived to see the hazards to which miners were exposed.
More information on the bill.
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