Solis Touts West Virginia Mine as a Model for Other Facilities

Melanie Trottman reports on labor.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis made her first visit to a coal mine today, touring the underground facility and vowing to encourage members of Congress to do the same.

“This is probably one of the most premier and regulated mines” in the country, Solis told reporters at a press briefing after her tour of the West Virginia facility run by Eastern Associated Coal Corp. “It probably has a lot to do with the cooperation between management and the employees,” she added.

Solis said that partnership has helped the mine become a model that many other facilities should mirror. Even before Congress passed a miner law in 2006 that updated and toughened decades-old safety requirements, management of the mine known as Federal No. 2 invested in life-saving equipment for miners, she said.

“There’s obviously a great deal of monetary investment that’s gone into this,” said Solis, noting the life-saving equipment that was placed in the mine before and after the new requirements took effect.

Encouraging members of Congress to visit the site would help them better understand the utility of the equipment and the value and necessity of coal miners to the U.S. economy, said Solis, who said President Barack Obama “values very much the sacrifices that miners make.”

“I’m going to encourage members of Congress to come down here,” said Solis, who donned a hard hat and mining boots before she changed for the press conference.

Not all mine workers care for Obama. One had a sticker on their hard-hat that said “Impeach Obama,” a call spurred by some workers’ belief that the president is anti-coal, the worker said.

Obama recently announced his intention to nominate Joseph A. Main to oversee the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, an appointment that mining unions praised because of Main’s mining background and work as a safety advocate.

Unions and mining companies expect Main would bring a tougher approach to mining regulation as MSHA continues to carry out the 2006 miner law passed after 47 coal miners died in a string of accidents, including one at the West Virginia Sago Mine. The law requires that underground mines have wireless-communications services and more stored oxygen, and it allows for heftier penalties for violations.