The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations said many coal companies attempted to hide patterns of safety violations.
The federation’s latest work safety profile avoided targeting miners by name but said safety agencies would require more funding to cope with a coal industry intent on dodging more regulation.
“At [the Mine Safety and Health Administration], many coal operators contest violations to try to avoid being cited for a pattern of violations and subject to tougher enforcement, including suspending dangerous operations,” the report states.
“At [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration], the agency has no authority to require the corrections of hazards while employer contests violations are pending.”
The AFL-CIO’s Death on the Job review unforgivingly subtitled The Toll of Neglect slammed what it called inadequate government funding and coal mining safety standards over the past few years.
Not surprisingly, it made numerous references to Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch disaster of 2010.
“Improvements in the Mine Safety and Health Act are needed to give MSHA more authority to shut down dangerous mines and to enhance enforcement against repeated violators,” the federation said.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Act is now more than 40 years old and is out of date.
“Congress should pass the Protecting America’s Workers Act to extend the law’s coverage to workers currently excluded, strengthen civil and criminal penalties for violations, enhance anti-discrimination protections and strengthen the rights of workers, unions and victims.”
According to the report, MSHA’s program of “impact” inspections to target mines with poor safety records or at high risk of explosions resulted in 7420 citations between April 2010 and March 2012.
Budgeting and politics, however, were cited as the most likely roadblocks to an October 2010 initiative by MSHA to reduce workplace exposure to coal dust and black lung and an August 2011 proposal to require proximity detectors on continuous mining machines in underground coal operations.
The AFL-CIO said a big push to fund regulatory agencies in the first year of the Obama administration had become static with no congressional action on budget increase requests.
Coal mining heavyweights West Virginia and Wyoming led a state-by-state breakdown of workplace fatality rates between 2005 and 2010.
There were 21 coal mining fatalities in the US during 2011, with Kentucky and West Virginia leading the nation with eight and six coal mining-related deaths respectively.
However, the report found the agriculture sector topped mining in workplace fatalities, with mining representing only 4% of total occupational fatalities in 2010.
Non-fatal injury was also found to be more prevalent in the agriculture sector but the report hinted its statistics might be distorted by industry pressure to cover up accidents.
“The widespread problem of injury underreporting must be addressed and employer policies and practices that discourage the reporting of injuries through discipline or other means must be prohibited,” the report says.
“OSHA needs to keep up with new hazards that face workers as workplaces and the nature of work change.”
