MSHA issues call to safety to nation’s coal miners
ARLINGTON, Va. – Since October 2015, eight fatalities and more than 1,100 nonfatal accidents have occurred in the nation’s coal mines, resulting in restricted duty, missed days at work, and permanent disabilities for the miners who worked there. While injury rates have been fairly consistent during this time period, records indicate a trend in accidents resulting in more serious injuries. The circumstances in at least 30 of the accidents might have led to fatalities.
Beginning today, the Mine Safety and Health Administration is issuing a call to safety to coal miners working in underground and surface mines around the country. Inspectors will engage coal miners and mine operators in “walk and talks” through Sept. 30, reminding them to “stop and take a breath” before proceeding with the next task at hand.
The most common outcomes of the more than 1,100 mining accidents – 250 of which occurred at surface operations – were injuries to the back, shoulders, knees and fingers. In the near-fatal accidents, the majority were attributed to powered haulage, electrical and machinery classifications.
The majority of non-fatal accidents occurred in West Virginia, with 419; Kentucky, with 191, and Pennsylvania, 130. (See chart for state-by-state breakdown below.)
“These walk and talks are intended to increase miners’ awareness of recent accidents, encourage the application of safety training and raise hazard recognition,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.
Since October 2015, more than 1,100 non-fatal accidents occurred in the nation’s coal mines, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration data.
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Why Blocked Exits at Dollar Tree Were a Big Deal
It was around 4:30 in the afternoon on March 25, 1911. Several hundred workers, mostly young women, were nearing the end of their Saturday shift at a blouse or “shirtwaist” factory in New York City. No one is quite sure how, but a massive fire erupted and spread quickly.
Most of the doors had been locked by the factory owners, probably to prevent theft and keep workers from taking breaks. In the end, 146 died, and this horrible event went down in history as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
The public outrage from this tragedy served as the basis for many of the worker safety reforms that we take for granted today, in part because of the mark it left on Frances Perkins, who would later serve as the secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Frances was visiting a friend who lived near the factory when the fire erupted. They heard the commotion and rushed outside, and then watched in helpless horror as people hurled themselves off the ledges of the building.
More than 100 years later, the Department of Labor continues the fight to protect workers, especially the most vulnerable. Like Frances, we want to make sure that this kind of catastrophe never happens again.
But unfortunately, problems with blocked exits and passageways are not remnants of the past. And while these are old problems, we have to tackle them in new ways.
For example, over a number of years the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has received complaints from employees of Dollar Tree stores about blocked emergency exits and obstructed access to exit routes and electrical equipment. In the worst case scenario, if a fire were to erupt or there was another emergency, workers would not be able to reach the emergency exits or turn off the electricity.
Congested conditions in the back storeroom of a Texas Dollar Tree store.
OSHA addressed these complaints one-by-one, store-by-store. But this was not the most efficient way to handle a serious problem that was occurring at stores throughout the country. In 2015, OSHA and my office, the department’s Office of the Solicitor, decided to address the big picture. We would no longer be satisfied with individual Dollar Tree stores correcting these problems; we wanted Dollar Tree to correct these problems nationwide.
At the height of this problem in 2015, 13 different inspections of stores throughout the country resulted in citations for blocked emergency exits, obstructed exit routes, etc. So we approached Dollar Tree about working together on a solution to these problems – a solution and an agreement that would cover all of its stores under federal OSHA jurisdiction.
In the end, after months of negotiations, the Department of Labor and Dollar Tree reached an agreement to implement a comprehensive safety and health program that will have a far-reaching, positive effect at 2,400 stores. The agreement called for Dollar Tree management’s commitment to correcting these problems, but we also know employee participation is especially important because it allows employees to have a say in how their workplaces can be made safer. The company’s program will incorporate management commitment, employee participation, hazard identification and control, education and training for employees.
We hope workers will feel empowered to speak up through the new program and the agreement also requires Dollar Tree to make available a toll-free number so employees can anonymously report safety and health issues. Dollar Tree also agreed to publish a corporate newsletter covering safety and health issues. And third-party monitoring will help ensure appropriate safety measures are in place.
We think that Frances Perkins would be proud.
Editor’s note: To report emergencies, unsafe working conditions, safety and health violations, to file a complaint, or to ask safety and health questions, call OSHA at 1-800-321-6742 or find your local office here.
Madeleine Le is the counsel for occupational safety and health from the Regional Office of the Solicitor in Dallas. Negotiating the agreement was a team effort that involved OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs; and attorneys from the Regional Office of the Solicitor in Dallas, Philadelphia, Denver and Boston as well as the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
