Is Congress about to shaft mine safety?
Jordan at Confined Space -- the dean of worker and health safety issues in the blogosphere -- has an important post up about Congressional wrangling over mine safety legislation.
With 31 miners dying this year, the time is right to tighten up lax worker protection rules in the mines. The Senate and House are poised to pass legislation, and seizing on this historic moment, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has offered three amendments that would strengthen workplace safety for miners:
(H/T Think Progress)
With 31 miners dying this year, the time is right to tighten up lax worker protection rules in the mines. The Senate and House are poised to pass legislation, and seizing on this historic moment, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has offered three amendments that would strengthen workplace safety for miners:
All are technologically feasible proposals, and supported by families who lost loved ones in the Sago mine disaster. But House conservatives are jumping on Miller for supposedly stalling the legislation. But it wouldn't be stalling if they passed the measures, no?*** Require the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to randomly check self-rescuer devices upon which miners’ lives depend in an emergency to ensure they are in working order;
*** Provide that the air stored underground for trapped miners under the Senate legislation last for a minimum of 48 hours through a chamber or cache; and
*** Provide that communication and tracking devices required under the Senate legislation be required in 15 months rather than the 3 years specified.
(H/T Think Progress)
1 Comments:
I believe that the total is 33 mining deaths rather than 31.
Thanks so much for the post!
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