From the Assistant Secretary's Desk

From the Assistant Secretary's Desk — Essential outreach to our stakeholders

Joseph A. Main - Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health

From the outset of my arrival as Assistant Secretary over five years ago, I committed MSHA to meet with our stakeholders to share what we are doing and why and to discuss how we can improve mine safety and health. We have made good on that commitment, which is furthering the goals of the Mine Act.

It's been a busy few months in that regard, as I and other top MSHA officials have crisscrossed the country to meet with national and regional labor and industry representatives of the coal and metal and nonmetal mining industries, and state and federal mining agencies. We visited mine rescue contests conducted in tandem with industry partners, toured mines and talked to managers and miners, and made new alliances. These collaborative efforts with stakeholders have led to improved health and safety.

We have also added a new stakeholder outreach group. That is with our nation's trainers, engaging with them on a regular basis to share and get feedback on training issues. We held our third training stakeholder conference call on November 13, with at least 250 trainers on the line.

During our stakeholder outreach we discussed the need to do more to protect the nation's miners, and there was considerable news and progress to report and discuss on a number of initiatives and actions, including: the early success of the new respirable coal dust rule with across-the-board compliance and the lowest respirable coal mine dust levels in history; continued progress on enforcing miners' rights in the workplace, with a record number of 105(c) discrimination cases and temporary reinstatements; success of the impact inspection program and Pattern of Violations program, which has helped substantially decrease the number of chronic violators; results of our highly successful initiatives with metal and nonmetal industry stakeholders on guarding, fall protection and ladder safety that have already led to major compliance improvements; overall improved mine safety and health compliance; advancements in mine rescue with new cutting-edge technologies to make rescue safer and quicker; significant reductions in the backlog of contested citations and orders, with the 2010 targeted backlog of nearly 66,000 cases reduced by over 99%; the pre-contest conferences and other actions reducing the need for litigation; and our new training initiatives.

On October 20th we gathered with state and national aggregate industry leaders at the Department of Labor for a high-level roundtable conversation with Labor Secretary Tom Perez. This event was a capstone of our progress with the aggregates industry, where we discussed mine safety, current and future jobs, skills and training needs where DOL can help, and working together to meet future challenges and opportunities. For more information on the roundtable, please see my blog, with photos, here. You can see the industry's take on this important meeting in this trade publication.

We continued what is likely the most extensive engagement on a new regulation I committed MSHA to. Coal Administrator Kevin Stricklin and his staff have been assisting the coal mining industry across the country to help ensure a smooth implementation of the first phase of the respirable coal dust rule to protect miners from black lung disease, which went into effect on August 1st. As part of these ongoing efforts, we staged the first of several workshops on best practices to control respirable coal dust at our Academy in Beckley, West Virginia. For more information on the dust rule and helpful resources, please check out our webpage at www.msha.gov/endblacklung.

Below are highlights and more details from some of our recent outreach activities:

In mid-September, I traveled with Metal and NonMetal Administrator Neal Merrifield to Kansas City, Missouri, to meet with Metal and Nonmetal mining industry stakeholders from eight states. I have attended about a half dozen such meetings in the Midwest organized to improve communications and cooperation between the agency and the mining industry.
As part of the two-day meeting, we toured two mines with practices that have helped drive injury and illness rates lower. Rockridge Center Mine, a surface limestone operation employing 15 miners, and the Stamper Underground Mine, a limestone operation with 27 miners owned by Martin Marietta, have had no fatal or lost-time accidents since 2009. Both mines credit training and employee engagement for their success. The Stamper break room has a plaque that reminds all miners of the company's Guardian Angel Creed, which gives them the right and responsibility to stop operations if conditions become dangerous. For photos of the mine visits, please click here.
Just a week later, I met with the National Lime Association as we signed an Alliance Agreement with Joseph Reilly, President of the Association, under which we agreed to continue to work together on education and training to improve the health and safety of those working at lime quarries and plants. For a photo of the signing, click here.
In mid-October, we held our annual TRAM training conference at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, WV, drawing more than 300 attendees for seminars and workshops on a variety of training topics and a training materials competition. This was an opportunity for me to update the training community on a number of new training initiatives which included combining our training field staff into a single unit to provide a wider range of services; meetings underway across the country with state mining industry stakeholders and field training staff to discuss how we can provide better training services; the new quarterly stakeholder conference calls with the nation's mining trainers; and our new page for trainers on the MSHA website. To access the training page – which is a work in progress – go to www.msha.gov/training.
On Oct. 23, I attended an executive board meeting of the United Mine Workers of America in Morgantown, WV and updated board members on a number of MSHA initiatives
In late October, I addressed by video conference the 10th annual health and safety conference for Metal and Nonmetal mines in the Rocky Mountain and Western states. The conference, held in Reno, Nevada, was a gathering of state mining associations, industry leaders, and regional MSHA staff intended to build partnerships and improve understanding of occupational health and safety in the mining industry.
On October 30, we were proud to honor the nation's mine rescuers as we observed the second annual National Mine Rescue Day and top MSHA officials and I attended a meeting of the newly-created national Holmes Mine Rescue Association at the Academy in Beckley. You can find more information about that event, and a related video, here.
On October 9, I attended the awards ceremony of the National Mine Rescue Skills competition at Ruff Creek Pa where 24 teams participated from across the country. You can see a video on this valuable training, as well as a list of winners, here.
A week later, MSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Silvey and I addressed the 9th annual Southeastern US Mine Safety and Health Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. The successful gathering, with about 670 participants, has grown over the years to include an increasing representation of coal as well as metal and nonmetal operations, and this year attracted a record number of mine safety and health professionals from throughout the southeastern US. It was a great opportunity for all to share ideas about improving mine safety and health.
The day prior to the event, MSHA Deputy Silvey, Coal Administrator Kevin Stricklin and I had the opportunity to travel underground at the Jim Walter Resources # 7 mine in Alabama, a mine represented by members of UMWA Local Union 2397, and meet with miners at the afternoon shift change. We were able to discuss a number of mine safety and health issues with management, officials of the UMWA and miners at the mine. You can see a photo of our visit here.
Speaking of alliances, on November 20th MSHA Deputy Silvey, Metal and Nonmetal Administrator Merrifield and I met with the IMA - MSHA alliance group and provided an update on progress on mine safety and health.

There were other outreach activities in the recent months, and I can assure you there will be more as we look at collective ways to improve mine safety and health so miners can go to work, put in their shift and return safe and healthy every day.