"Unions, liberal advocacy groups and many congressional Democrats are expected to defend the new healthcare law and the new financial oversight system, created in the wake of the worst recession in more than half a century. They also are expected to defend efforts to expand worker safety rules.

"'The chamber's new campaign is disappointing and may threaten the health and safety of hardworking Americans if successful,' said Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee."

“In the weeks after the worst U.S. coal-mining accident in 40 years, federal safety inspectors showed up repeatedly at a mine that snakes under the West Virginia hills: Loveridge No. 22.

“On July 26, an inspector cited the mine for concerns that walls might crumble. He noted that this made 87 citations for problems with the roof or walls over two years.

“Three days later, a chunk of rock 16 feet long and 41/2 feet high broke away from the mine's wall, according to a federal accident report. Miner Jessie Adkins, 39, was caught beneath it.

“He died before he got to a hospital.

“Adkins is one of nine men who have died inside U.S. coal mines in the six months since the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia, in which 29 men were killed on April 5. This string of accidents has revealed key shortfalls in a push by the Obama administration to improve mine safety.”

“…federal regulators still have trouble using their power to temporarily shut down mines that have a ‘pattern of violations.’ That provision in the law has not been used successfully in 32 years.

“Last week, the Mine Safety and Health Administration announced new criteria that could simplify that process. Bills introduced in Congress would expand whistle-blower protections for miners, give the MSHA subpoena power and provide federal regulators with more authority to close unsafe mines. Legislation has stalled on the Senate side.”

“Trying to explain why repeated federal citations didn't prevent fatalities, safety experts pointed to the same problems that surfaced after the Upper Big Branch blast. The backlog of appeals cases has grown - clogged by the new citations - meaning that companies can delay payments for years.

“At Consol, for instance, the company has contested 31 percent of the safety citations issued to its mines since January. That's more than 1,000 citations, with fines totaling $2.6 million, which won't be paid until the cases are resolved.”

“‘Since the passage of the Mine Act more than 30 years ago, not one mining operation has ever been placed on a pattern of violations,’ said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. ‘We have known for some time that the current system is broken and needs to be fixed. This new screening process improves upon the old one, which cast too broad a net and did not distinguish mines with the highest levels of elevated enforcement. This new system will let MSHA focus its attention on those mines that are putting miners at greatest risk.’

“‘MSHA's changes to the POV program cannot fix shortcomings that require legislation or changes to the existing regulations,’ Main added. ‘This is a stop-gap measure until reform can occur. We are aggressively pursuing both regulatory and legislative reforms, but in the mean time this new policy improves our ability to identify problem mines. Our goal with each of these reform efforts is to identify mines with a pattern of dangerous conditions and encourage them to improve their safety records. If a mine fails to do so, it will be placed into POV status.’”

“I made a pledge to the families of Sago, Aracoma Alma, Darby and Crandall Canyon that we would do everything in our power to uncover the cause of those tragedies, to hold responsible parties accountable, and to prevent other miners from suffering a similar fate.  

“I extend this same promise to all the families of Upper Big Branch. Your families paid the ultimate price for a job our nation depends on.”

"The millions of dollars in fines levied pale in comparison to the value of the six lives lost and numerous other lives disrupted…However, the fines and penalties reflect the gravity and severity of the deadly conditions created by the companies managing the work at the site. No operation and no deadline is worth cutting common sense safety procedures. Workers should not sacrifice their lives for their livelihoods.”

“O&G Industries of Torrington stood to gain a $19 million incentive if it finished construction early on the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, federal officials said as they issued $16 million in fines to O&G and other firms for the Feb. 7 explosion at the plant that killed six workers and injured several dozen.”
…

“The Courant has reported that workers were logging 84-hour weeks at the plant in the days and weeks leading up to the natural gas explosion, and the owners were pressing for a May/June opening – five months before regulators expected the plant to be ready.”

“The Kleen Energy explosion is just another example of the tragic results of putting production, in this case completing construction, ahead of safety. OSHA’s significant proposed fine for safety violations resulting in the deaths of six workers should be a wakeup call for those who callously disregard accepted safety practices in order to meet deadlines.”    

“…the House approved a separate bill to extend whistleblower protections to oil and gas workers who report hazardous conditions or other problems. The whistleblower bill will be added to the oil spill legislation when it is sent to the Senate.”

“In light of the current tragedy in Gulf, I hope we can answer whether there is a better way to oversee and protect the health and safety of oil rig workers… The Deepwater disaster clearly demonstrates that the status quo is not good enough. We must do better.”

“Imagine a worker going to work and saying ‘get my affairs in order and let’s check my will.’ That’s what people do when they go to war and they shouldn’t have to do it when they go to work.”

• Prohibit an employer from discharging or otherwise discriminating against an employee who reports to the employer, or a federal or state government official that he or she reasonably believes the employer is violating the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).
• Protect covered employees who report injuries or unsafe conditions related to the offshore work, refuse to work based on a good faith belief that the offshore work could cause injury or impairment or a spill, or refuse to perform work in a manner that they believe violates the OCSLA.
• Establish a process for an employee to appeal an employer’s retaliation by filing a complaint with the Secretary of Labor, and allowing a jury trial if the Secretary fails to act in a timely manner.  
• Make an aggrieved employee eligible for reinstatement, back pay and compensatory and consequential damages, and, where appropriate, exemplary damages.  
• Require employers to post a notice that explains employee rights and remedies under this Act and provide training to the employees of these rights. 
  

“A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.”

“Only about half of the workers interviewed said they felt they could report actions leading to a potentially ‘risky’ situation without reprisal.”

• Provides whistleblower and anti-retaliation protections to workers on the Outer Continental Shelf.
• Protects worker safety by improving federal agency coordination.
  

“If a sense of urgency is needed beyond the deaths of 29 coal miners last April in West Virginia, Congressional lawmakers better heed the latest news from the Upper Big Branch mine where the explosion occurred. A company electrician has admitted that he was ordered to bypass a methane detector alarm when it kept interrupting the flow of coal.”

“The majority Democrats’ reform measure, endorsed by the Obama administration, would crack down on reckless mining companies with stronger monitoring and criminal penalties, subpoena-empowered investigations, and protections against the dismissal of miners who dare to complain about risks to life down below.”

“The laws ensuring safety have to be strict and enforced. There is no excuse for endangering workers, or opposing laws that protect them, in the mining industry or in any other industry.”

• American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
  
• American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center
• BlueGreen Alliance
  
• Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Change to Win
  
• Interstate Mining Compact Commission (second letter)
• National Consumers League
• State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO
• The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
  
• UAW
• United Mine Workers of America
  
• United Steelworkers
• United Support & Memorial For Workplace Fatalities
  

1. 57 times
   
2. 326 times
   
3. 515 times
   
4. 100,000 times
   

Yesterday's hearing on H.R. 5663, Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010 came to one conclusion:

"This bill will save lives."

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joe Main told members of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee as much during a hearing on the Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010 Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.

"The bill is true to the principles that mine operators are responsible for the health and safety of our most precious resource, the miner," Main said. "It promotes a culture of safety and will give MSHA effective new tools to hold to account operators who fail or refuse to meet their obligations."

The West Virginia Metro News also reported that: 

Altogether, the legislation is designed to do the following:

• Make mines with serious and repeated violations safe.
• Hold irresponsible mine operators accountable.
• Give MSHA better enforcement tools.
• Ensure miners' right to blow the whistle on unsafe conditions.
• Update mine safety standards to prevent explosions.
• Increase MSHA's accountability.
• Promote worker health and safety in all workplaces.

This afternoon, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller holds a hearing on mine safety. Congress has been working on legislation to update health and safety laws, and to put some teeth in the regulatory process. All in response to the April tragedy at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, where an explosion killed 29 men.

MILLER: Clearly some mine operators have decided that to run an unsafe mine and to pay the fines is just the cost of doing business. And they’re willing to pay the small fines. And some of the fines have not been adjusted for over 40 years.

“This committee has heard from too many families over the years who have suffered a great loss, as you have. I made a promise to them and I cannot forget that promise.

“I made a pledge to the families of Sago, Aracoma Alma, Darby and Crandall Canyon that we would do everything in our power to uncover the cause of those tragedies, to hold responsible parties accountable, and to prevent other miners from suffering a similar fate.”

“On Tuesday the House Education and Labor Committee will hear testimony from key industry players, including the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, the United Mine Workers union, the National Mining Association and various mine safety experts.

“The committee chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and 17 other House Democrats introduced legislation July 1 aimed at toughening safety enforcement.

“The bill would overhaul the system under which mines with persistently poor safety records are monitored and made to follow the law; increase maximum civil and criminal penalties for safety violations; require payment of penalties in a timely manner; give MSHA the power to close mines and subpoena documents and testimony; and protect miners who report safety violations.”

• Make Mines with Serious and Repeated Violations Safe – Criteria for ‘pattern of violations’ sanctions would be revamped for underground coal mines and other ‘gassy’ mines to ensure that operators which chronically and repeatedly violate mine safety standards or have high accident rates improve safety dramatically.
   
• Ensure Irresponsible Operators Are Held Accountable – Maximum criminal penalties would be increased for underground coal mines, and a sanction is established for mine operators who knowingly tamper with or disable safety equipment that could kill miners. Operators would be required to pay penalties in a timely manner.
   
• Give MSHA Better Enforcement Tools – MSHA would be given the authority to subpoena documents and testimony. The agency could seek a court order to close a mine when there is a continuing threat to the health and safety of miners. MSHA could require more training of miners in unsafe mines. MSHA will require contractors, in addition to operators, to report accidents and injuries and hours of work at each mine, and those filing reports would be held responsible for the accuracy of reports.
   
• Protect Miners Who Speak Out on Unsafe Conditions – Protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions in underground coal and other gassy mines would be strengthened and would guarantee that miners wouldn’t lose pay for safety-related closures. In addition, miners would receive protections allowing them to speak freely during investigations.
   
• Modernize Safety Requirements in Coal Mines – Increased rock dusting would be required to prevent coal dust explosions. Pre-shift reviews of hazards and violations in the mine must be communicated to incoming miners to ensure that they are not caught unaware.  Protocols for continuous atmospheric monitoring for methane and carbon monoxide will be developed by NIOSH and adopted by MSHA through regulations.
   
• Increase MSHA’s Accountability – The legislative outline provides for an independent investigation of the most serious accidents, which includes an assessment of whether there are gaps in MSHA’s oversight or regulation. It asks GAO to assess whether there are problems with timeliness of mine plan reviews.
   
• Guarantee Basic Protections in All Other Workplaces Under OSHA – To ensure that all workplaces have basic protections, whistleblower protections would be strengthened, criminal and civil penalties would be increased, and hazard abatement would be sped up. In addition, victims of accidents and their family members would be provided greater rights during investigations and enforcement actions. OSHA would be allowed to assert concurrent enforcement jurisdiction in states with OSHA state plans, if the state is failing  to maintain protections for workers that is at least as effective as federal OSHA.
  

Solution: The bill will put workplace health and safety whistleblower protections on a par with other more modern whistleblower laws found in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the Federal Railroad Safety Act and most recently in the Frank-Dodd financial services bill. It improves whistleblower protection by ensuring a claimant’s right to an adjudicative hearing and extends statutes of limitations from 30 to 180 days.

Solution: Increase civil penalties to keep up with inflation and establishes higher penalties when workers are killed due to the violation. It would also make criminal violations a felony instead of a misdemeanor.

Solution: Beginning January 1, 2015, OSHA must adjust civil penalties for inflation at least once every four years.

Solution: The bill would require employers to fix serious hazards during the contest period, instead of waiting until employer’s appeal is exhausted, which can take years. Employers would have the right to petition for a stay of an OSHA abatement order, if they can demonstrate likelihood of success on overturning the citation upon appeal and worker health and safety will not be adversely affected.

Solution: Corporate directors and officers would be liable for criminal violations that caused or significantly contributed to the cause death or serious injury.

Solution: Families of victims have the right to be heard in the investigative and enforcement process, and requires OSHA to establish family liaisons in every regional office.

Solution: The Secretary of Health and Human Services would appoint a five member independent investigative panel to investigate mine accidents with three or more deaths, chaired by a staff member from NIOSH’s Office of Mine Safety and Health Research. The investigation would identify all factors that caused or contributed to the accident, assess whether actions or inactions by MSHA, state regulators, operators or others contributed to accident; and review MSHA’s investigation report.

Solution: The legislation would allow MSHA to certify, recertify, and decertify mine foremen, superintendants and others if equivalent certifications were not established under state law. The bill would allow MSHA to charge a fee for certification. A grant program would be established to improve state mine certification programs.

Solution: The bill would require the use of greater amounts of rock dusting, which holds down the levels of combustible coal dust. The bill mandates new monitoring technology to provide real time rock dust measurements.

The bill would also require the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to advise MSHA on the feasibility of using continuous atmospheric monitoring systems to detect explosive levels of methane in underground coal mines.

Solution: The bill would require pre-shift communications to incoming miners on hazards and other problems in the mine.

Solution: The bill would allow MSHA to prescribe additional training beyond current law where a history of non-compliance or accidents indicates a need for additional training. MSHA would also be allowed to include a one-hour refresher training on worker rights and obligations in addition to the eight hours already required by law.

Solution: Contractors would be responsible for reporting injuries, illnesses and hours worked at each mine site. Reports to MSHA have to be signed by a responsible individual who holds a certification, which can be revoked for knowingly submitting a false report.

Solution: The legislation would give miners the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions.

Solution: The bill would grant miners the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions and would extend the statute of limitations for filing a whistleblower complaint from 60 to 180 days. Miners would be able to seek punitive damages in addition to back pay and reinstatement.

The bill would establish civil penalties for whistleblower violations of $10,000 minimum and $100,000 maximum for first whistleblower violation, and $20,000 minimum and $200,000 maximum for repeated violations in a three-year window. 

Criminal sanctions would be establish for those who knowingly retaliate with the intent to adversely impact directly or indirectly the employment or livelihood of those who provide information on health and safety conditions to MSHA or law enforcement officers.

Solution: Miners would have the right to meet with MSHA confidentially. The bill would also prevent mine operator attorneys from also representing individual miners unless the miners knowingly and voluntarily waived the conflict of interest.

Solution: Workers will get full pay after the first two shifts when a mine is temporarily closed by MSHA because of safety problems, and full pay thereafter to a maximum of 60 days. Current law only provides 7 days pay after first two shifts.  MSHA can also issue a mine closure order if a mine operator does not pay miners by the next pay period after the mine reopens. Mine operators would be provided a hearing and judgment within 30 days on any order that closes a mine and triggers payments to miners..  

Solution: The bill would provide underground coal miners working at mines “on pattern status” with protections from dismissal for three years, unless the employer has just cause based on reasonable job-related grounds or for other legitimate business reasons.

Solution: The legislation clarifies MSHA has the ability to close a mine that is considered a serial violator through a court injunction.

Solution: The legislation grants MSHA the ability to subpoena in conjunction with the agency’s investigations and inspections.

Solution: The legislation would require that inspections occur on all shifts and days of the week. If inspection times are unpredictable, operators will be motivated to work more safely across all shifts. 

Solution: Any person who knowingly provide advance notice of an inspection with the intent to impede, interfere or adversely affect the results of an inspection, could face a felony count, with a maximum five years in prison and a maximum penalty to $250,000 per individual and $500,000 per organization.

Solution: Criminal violations for knowing violations of safety standards that expose a miner to a significant risk of serious bodily injury or death in the first instance would be a felony for operators of underground coal mines (and other gassy underground mines)– with punishment of up to five years in jail for a first offense and a maximum of $1 million fine, or both, and ten years for the second offense or $2 million or both.   Knowingly tampering with or disabling a safety device which exposes miners to a significant risk of serious bodily injury or death is also punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years and or a $ 2 million fine, or both.

Solution: Mines that are more than 180 days in arrears on paying fines, or failing to live up to a payment plan, would face a mine-wide withdrawal order until payments are made.  

Solution: Criteria for ‘pattern of violations’ sanctions would be revamped to ensure that dangerous underground coal mine operations fix chronic problems.

MSHA would have authority to close down an underground coal mine or a “gassy” underground mine once a ‘pattern of violations’ status is triggered. In order to reopen, underground mine operators have to comply with a remediation plan that can include additional training, added staffing, and an effective safety management program, and be subject to double the number of mine inspections and additional reporting requirements.

Mines would pay a fee to cover the cost of these added inspections and face doubled civil penalties for any violations if underground mines do not significantly improve compliance in 180 days. Underground mine operators subject to a ‘pattern of violation’ status would have the right to an expedited hearing from the Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

MSHA would also put mines’ compliance history and the criteria for pattern status on the agency’s website.

Solution: The legislation will impose prejudgment interest on penalties that are sustained. It would also require the Review Commission to use MSHA’s penalty formulas, instead of vague statutory criteria. By making the system more predictable, there is less incentive to try to game the system by clogging the system and appealing cases regardless of their merit.

• Sentinel Mine, International Coal Group Inc (ICG), Wolf Run Mining Company
• No. 1 Mine (Now Bronzite III), Wolford Jeffrey (CONSOL Energy Inc), Jacob Mining LLC (Consol of Kentucky Inc)
• Justice #1, Massey Energy Co., Independence Coal Co.
• Black Castle Mining Co., Massey Energy Co., Elk Run Coal Co.
• Coalburg No. 2 Mine, Richard H. Abraham, Rio Group, Inc.
• Copley Trace Surface Mine, James H. Booth, Argus Energy WV, LLC
• Pond Creek Mine No. 1, Robert Helton, KWV Operations LLC
• Deep Mine No. 8, James H. Booth, Argus Energy WV, LLC
• Mine No. 6 (Now Laurel Fork Mine), Dick J. Plaster (CONSOL Energy Inc), Harvest-Time Coal Inc (Consolidation Coal Company )
  

• Criteria for ‘pattern of violations’ sanctions would be revamped to ensure that the nation’s most dangerous mine operations improve safety dramatically.

• Maximum criminal and civil penalties would be increased and operators would be required to pay penalties in a timely manner.  

• MSHA would be given the authority to subpoena documents and testimony. The agency could seek a court order to close a mine when there is a continuing threat to the health and safety of miners. MSHA could require more training of miners in unsafe mines. Increased rock dusting would be required to prevent coal dust explosions.  

• Miners would be granted the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. Protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions would be strengthened, and miners would not lose pay for safety-related closures. In addition, miners would receive protections so they can speak freely during investigations.  

• The legislative outline provides for an independent investigation of the most serious accidents.  It would require that mine personnel are well-qualified, and ensure that inspections are comprehensive and well-targeted. Requires pre-shift reviews of mine conditions and communication to ensure that appropriate safety information is transmitted.  

• To ensure that all  workplaces have basic protections, whistleblower protections would be strengthened, criminal and civil penalties would be increased, and hazard abatement would be sped up. In addition, victims of accidents and their family members would be provided greater rights during investigations and enforcement actions.

“BP has a history of cost cutting. They have a history of workers dying on the job. They have a history of failing to maintain their equipment that has led to environmental disasters. What we’re seeing in the Gulf of Mexico and along the coast today is just the latest example of BP playing Russian roulette with the lives of their workers, our precious environment, and local economies -- all in the name of increasing profit at what is already one of the most profitable corporations in the world."

"Hi Deb and Sara. I'm still OK at 2:40 pm. I don't know what is going on here and outside. We don't hear any attempts at drilling or rescue. The section is full of smoke and fumes so we can't escape. We are all still alive at this time."

George Hamner Jr. wrote these words to his family while trapped, along with 12 other miners, after an explosion in their coal mine. Soon after, Hamner and 11 of his coworkers died at the Sago Mine in West Virginia. That was more than four years ago.

Unfortunately, the workers who go into our nation's mines each day, who produce the coal that heats our homes and lights our offices, still face the same hazards that have already led to far too many tragic deaths. In large part, this is because of an industry that has staunchly opposed reforms and has lobbied hard to stymie any real efforts to hold companies accountable for the safety of their workers.

On Sunday, our nation paused to commemorate the 29 fallen miners of the Upper Big Branch mine. Like George Hamner, these 29 miners lived in West Virginia. And like George Hamner, they died from an explosion that probably could have been prevented.

Today is the 21st anniversary of Workers Memorial Day, which honors the workers who lose their lives, become injured or develop an illness on the job each year.

Although Upper Big Branch was the worst U.S. mining accident since 1970, it was only one of three horrific workplace catastrophes during April alone. Last week, 11 workers died in an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. And three days before the blast at Upper Big Branch, seven workers perished in an explosion at the Tesoro oil refinery near Seattle, Washington.

These explosions are a reminder that, although we have made some strides in workplace safety, unacceptable risks still remain for our workers. The AFL-CIO reports that in the United States in 2008, 5,214 workers were killed on the job -- an average of 14 workers every day. We have to do better.

The causes of these recent explosions are under investigation. But clear and common traits exist in each of them: a pattern of serious safety violations and a corporate culture that valued production over workers' safety.

Take the Upper Big Branch mine12. Two months ago, my committee -- the House Education and Labor Committee -- learned the methods mine operators use to game the system and skirt some of the tougher sanctions implemented after the Sago explosion. While some companies have prioritized safety, others have responded by indiscriminately challenging nearly every violation.

By flooding the system with unwarranted appeals, these companies have been able to avoid stiffer accountability. The consequences of these delays can be deadly.

In August, the Mine Safety and Health Administration identified 48 mines that were able to escape tougher scrutiny because of these unresolved appeals. Upper Big Branch was one of them.

So was the nearby Pocahontas Mine, where a miner was killed last week.

Loopholes in our safety laws aren't exclusive to mining. Sadly, penalties for companies that violate health and safety laws are woefully outdated. Multimillion-dollar corporations often face little more than a slap on the wrist for potentially fatal violations.

Without effective enforcement, it's easy for bad actors to become repeat offenders. And without adequate whistle-blower protections, workers who want to report hazards often live in fear of retribution.

According to The New York Times, one Upper Big Branch foreman recalled, "I have had guys come to me and cry" because they were too afraid to report concerns about high methane levels in the mine. Workers shouldn't have to choose between losing their lives and losing their jobs.

These tragedies call for immediate reforms that will make all workplaces safer.

First, we must start to clear the backlog of mine safety appeals. There are more than 16,700 backlogged cases before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission -- and only 14 judges to handle them. Simple math tells us this isn't a workable equation; at least double that number of judges is needed to significantly reduce this backlog. Congress should immediately allocate funding to hire them.

Second, existing proposals should serve as a starting point for comprehensive workplace safety improvements. In 2008, I was the author of legislation that would have strengthened mine disaster prevention efforts, improved emergency responses and reduced long-term health risks to miners. The S-MINER Act passed the House but died in the Senate under a veto threat. We don't know whether it would have prevented the Upper Big Branch tragedy, but it certainly could have helped.

Finally, Congress should pass the Protecting America's Workers Act, which would modernize safety protections for workers across all industries through stronger penalties, whistle-blower protections and meaningful accountability when employers break the law.

Four years ago, I made a promise to George Hamner's widow, Debbie, and the many other families who lost a loved one that year in the Sago, Darby and Aracoma Alma mine tragedies. I told them we would do everything we could to heed the lessons of those disasters and keep other miners safe.

On this Workers Memorial Day, it's time to live up to this promise for all the families of workers who have lost their lives on the job and all working men and women across our country. We can't afford to let another year -- or four -- pass us by.

The Upper Big Branch mine, where the explosion occurred, is a case in point. According to a 2007 agency letter to the Massey Energy Company, the mine’s owner, Upper Big Branch had incurred 204 safety violations just in the previous two years. Disturbingly, the agency soon pronounced itself satisfied that Massey had addressed the problems. But in the past two years, the mine has been cited repeatedly for safety violations, many of them serious, and some involving improper ventilation.

These alarming numbers should have given the agency sufficient ammunition to prove a “pattern” of violations, a necessary precondition for shutting the operation. But the agency’s procedures prevent it from taking decisive action until the appeals process runs its course, and industry has become remarkably adept at prolonging legal challenges for months or years.

Federal officials say the backlog has been holding up strong enforcement action — including shutdowns — against 48 mines, one of which is the Massey mine.

Strengthening the agency means strengthening the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. Regulators lack subpoena power, a basic investigatory tool. Violations of safety standards that lead to deaths are mere misdemeanors. The agency also needs more inspectors and administrative judges to deal with the appeals backlog.

Representative George Miller, the California Democrat who leads the House Education and Labor Committee, is eager to begin addressing these deficiencies, as is his Senate counterpart, Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. Both are scheduled to hold hearings.

Rescue workers began the precarious task Tuesday of removing explosive methane gas from the coal mine where at least 25 miners died the day before. The mine owner’s dismal safety record, along with several recent evacuations of the mine, left federal officials and miners suggesting that Monday’s explosion might have been preventable.

In the past two months, miners had been evacuated three times from the Upper Big Branch because of dangerously high methane levels, according to two miners who asked for anonymity for fear of losing their jobs. Representative Nick J. Rahall II, a Democrat whose district includes the mine, said he had received similar reports from miners about recent evacuations at the mine, which as recently as last month was fined at least three times for ventilation problems, according to federal records.

The accident occurred at about 3 p.m. at Massey Energy subsidiary Performance Coal Co.'s Upper Big Branch Mine-South.

Stricklin said at a briefing just after 2 a.m. Tuesday that 25 miners were killed in the explosion.

The explosion is the deadliest mine disaster in the United States since 1984, when 27 people were killed at a Utah mine.

Stricklin said the explosion is believed to have occurred near shift change as a crew was exiting the operation in a mantrip, an underground mine vehicle.

The Upper Big Branch Mine-South employs about 200 workers and last year produced about 1.2 million tons of coal, according to company disclosures filed with MSHA.

In seven of the last 10 years, the mine has recorded a non-fatal injury rate worse than the national average for similar operations, according to MSHA statistics.

Between 2008 and last year, safety violations at the operation more than doubled and fines issued by MSHA tripled, according to agency records.

Mine operators have tripled their appeals of safety citations and fines in an effort to block tougher enforcement actions for repeat violations, members of a congressional hearing were told Tuesday.

Companies formally challenged about 9,200 citations or fines issued by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration in 2009, up from 2,400 new appeals in 2005, according to testimony at a hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Coal operators in Kentucky, Indiana and other states are challenging so many citations that the resulting backlog is allowing repeat violators to endanger the safety of miners, Main told the House Education and Labor Committee.

The committee chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., held up a stack of 16,000 backlogged cases at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Just four years ago, the backlog was about 2,700 cases.

“This staggering caseload will render federal efforts to hold bad mine operators accountable meaningless,” Miller said. “It is unacceptable.”

Bruce Watzman, of the National Mining Association, emphasized that there have been great strides in safety since 2006, when 12 miners died in an explosion at Sago. Sago, combined with deaths at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in West Virginia and at the Darby Mine in Kentucky, focused national attention on the issue.

In 2009, 34 U.S. miners died on the job, an all-time low.

MSHA chief, Joe Main says he is also looking at the option to hold conferences between operators and MSHA officials before the owners can file an appeal. He also said he would encourage accuracy at the mines during inspections.

"We also must diminish the incentives for operators who appear to be developing a pattern of significant substantial safety violations to contest simply to delay enforcement," he said.

The meeting wrapped up with suggestions from Miller to take a closer look at operators appealing the majority of citations issued as well as a need from Congress to help with resources.

• "Reducing the Growing Backlog of Contested Mine Safety Cases," on Tuesday, February 23.
• "H.R. 4330, the All Students Achieving through Reform Act of 2009," on Wednesday, February 24.
  

For now, some feel torn between public health and protecting their jobs. Nationwide, 84% of workers said they felt pressured to come to work sick because of the recession, according to a September poll by Vancouver-based Angus Reid Strategies. The poll also showed that 69% of workers had not been offered vaccines or other precautions from employers.

One in six workers say they or a family member have been fired, suspended, punished or threatened for staying home sick or caring for a sick relative, according to a survey last year by the Washington, D.C.-based Public Welfare Foundation. Many large employers, such as Disney and Wal-Mart, dock workers disciplinary points for staying home even when they are ill.

"We are seeing more and more stories of workers who are infected with the virus but can't afford to stay home because they don't have paid sick leave," Miller said. "This puts both their co-workers and their customers at risk -- and could cost their employers money in lost productivity."

Some employers say paid sick leave saves them money in the long run.

"If they're sick and they're getting other employees sick, that's just going to impact our employees more," said April Boduc, a spokeswoman for San Diego-based Sempra Energy, which gives employees 10 paid sick days a year and allows them to bank unused days and donate vacation days to sick co-workers.

Why did the state agency charged with keeping workers safe on the job fail so badly — and are those failures symptomatic of a national problem?...At stake could be Nevada’s control over the workplace-safety program. Nevada is one of 22 states operating such a program, which is supposed to protect private and public employees. The federal government shoulders the responsibility in all other states.

• No ‘willful’ or ‘repeat’ citations were made and were even discouraged. ‘Willful’ violations carry significantly higher penalties;
• In nearly half of all fatality cases, family members of the fallen workers were not contacted or given the opportunity to speak with investigators;
• Clear cases of repeat violations were not cited. For example, OSHA issued ‘serious’ violations in the Orleans Casino case rather than ‘willful’ or ‘repeat’ violations even though the owner and operator of this hotel had same violations other facilities in Nevada;
• Even when Nevada OSHA cited a workplace for a health and safety violation, they could not demonstrate that those workplaces were abated correctly; and
• Nevada OSHA investigators were not properly trained on construction hazards. 

The probe examined Nevada OSHA’s oversight of 25 workplace fatalities, some of which occurred during the Las Vegas Strip construction boom and found an agency with staff ill-equipped to investigate accidents and administrators unwilling to impose hefty penalties on companies.

The report is the most significant review of a state program conducted by the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in nearly two decades. Labor officials said the findings have prompted a nationwide review of state-administered workplace-safety plans and increased federal oversight.

The Labor Department said its investigation was triggered in part by the Sun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series that examined the Strip construction deaths and exposed the failures of government, management and labor unions to protect workers.

The report documents troubles large and small within Nevada OSHA’s offices in Reno and Henderson — from state lawyers and managers who discouraged harsh citations for company violations to staff communiqués via Post-it notes. In half the fatality cases, families of the workers were not told of investigations, as required.

President Obama has chosen wisely in picking a respected scientist and safety advocate to head the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. David Michaels, a research professor and occupational health expert at the George Washington University School of Public Health, seems just the right man to steer the agency back toward an emphasis on protecting workers after eight years of lax oversight and favoritism to industry under the Bush administration.

The nomination of Dr. Michaels is apt to provoke opposition from some business interests. They should hold their fire. His emphasis on cultural change and involvement of workers in improving safety could help ease the polarization between business and labor. And his emphasis on sound science could give everyone greater confidence that OSHA will make the right decisions.

Nearly 40 years ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted to protect workers against these very abuses. The law has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and helped millions more avoid exposure to preventable illnesses and injuries.

But the law's protections have eroded in recent decades – especially over the past eight years. All too often, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's leadership failed to adequately protect workers from well-documented workplace threats – from exposure to a chemical that causes popcorn lung disease to combustible dust to dangers on construction sites....

This neglect has left OSHA significantly weakened and put workers in greater jeopardy.

It begins with good leadership that's committed to restoring OSHA's mission. President Obama's Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, is a passionate advocate for working families and she's determined to reverse the harmful damage wrought during the Bush years. But good leadership only goes so far – we also need to give her additional tools to effectively enforce the law.

Last week, I joined other Democrats in introducing the Protecting America's Workers Act, legislation that would modernize current law by updating its penalties, strengthening whistleblower protections and ensuring that bad employers are held accountable. It will allow OSHA to finally do its job – and it is a critical start toward improving the safety of our workplaces.

This week the Education and Labor Committee will hold hearings to examine how OSHA can toughen penalties and impose effective enforcement. Penalties haven't been updated since 1990 and aren't indexed for inflation. Unscrupulous CEOs often face nothing more than a drop in the bucket for egregious violations.