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Related news: Buckhannon man to help mine whistleblowers 9/9/07
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The West Virginia Mine Safety Project provides free legal services to coal miners who have been retaliated against for voicing concerns about workplace safety. The Project also helps miners with other workplace health and safety problems. In addition, the Project advocates for protective coal mine health and safety standards. It is a violation of federal and state law to fire or otherwise discriminate against a miner for voicing concerns about workplace health and safety. Despite these legal protections, many miners fear retaliation if they bring safety problems to their employers' attention. However, by providing miners with free legal help, the Center hopes this encourages miners to speak out about safety problems and help prevent another coal mining tragedy. The Project also can help West Virginia miners who have other workplace health and safety problems. For instance, the Project can help with miners' concerns about lax safety enforcement or help with miners' questions about new safety regulations. The Project works with underground coal miners, surface coal miners, preparation plant workers, and others. The Project is made possible largely by a fellowship awarded to staff attorney Nathan Fetty by the Skadden Fellowship Foundation. The Appalachian Center's work traditionally has focused on environmental issues associated with coal mining in the region. The Center is proud to sponsor the West Virginia Mine Safety Project because this work will help to broaden the Center's efforts to promote a just and sustainable economy in West Virginia's coal-producing counties.
Contact: The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has published a helpful guide to miners’ rights. The Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, based in eastern Kentucky, represents miners in black lung, discrimination, and other matters. The Charleston Gazette provides thorough coverage of coal mine health and safety issues in the series “Beyond Sago.” The Center drafted a Petition for Rulemaking to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to change how miners get training about their workplace health and safety rights. Several other organizations joined the Center in the Petition for Rulemaking, including the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, and the United Mine Workers of America. The press release explains the regulatory changes we seek. Although MSHA denied the petition for rulemaking outright, we continue to push for changes to the law to assure that miners are fully informed of their rights in the workplace. The Center, along with the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, brought a lawsuit on behalf of an Eastern Kentucky coal miner against U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. The suit aims to force federal regulators to tighten the limits on coal mine dust causing black lung disease. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which falls under the Department of Labor, has a plain legal duty to promulgate a respirable dust regulation that will eliminate respiratory illnesses caused by work in coal mines. This suit comes after a series of media reports and scientific findings that black lung, after years on the decline, is increasing among miners in the Appalachian coalfields. Black lung, or coal workers' pneumoconiosis, is a debilitating and often fatal lung disease caused by breathing coal dust.
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