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After decades of delays and broken promises, coal miners hail a rule to slow the rise of black lung
By: Leah Willingham | Matthew Daly | AP
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A half-century ago, the nation’s top health experts urged the federal agency in charge of mine safety to adopt strict rules protecting miners from poisonous rock… Read More
A tax to provide benefits to black lung victims is permanent, but might not fix all the fund’s problems
By: Justin Hicks | Ohio Valley ReSource
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HAZARD, Ky. (OVR) — It’s early in the morning outside a Hampton Inn in Hazard, Ky. A bright blue-and-white RV covered in larger-than-life portraits of coal miners sits smack in the… Read More
Study Shows Bias, Conflicts Of Interest Among Doctors Who Read Black Lung X-rays
By: Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Doctors hired by coal companies in black lung cases are far less likely to diagnose the disease in X-rays than are independent doctors or those who are hired by coal… Read More
Coal Mine Safety Regulators Issue COVID Protection Guidelines, But No Regulations
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — The U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday stronger coronavirus safety guidance intended to keep coal miners safe from COVID-19 in the workplace. However, the Labor Department’s… Read More
Blackjewel Coal Moves To Liquidate, Leaving Millions Unpaid To Workers And Regulators
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WHITESBURGH, Ky. (OVR) — The convoluted bankruptcy of coal company Blackjewel has hit another turn of events as the company’s former CEO moved to liquidate the company. A federal judge… Read More
Lawmakers, Union Urge Mine Safety Regulators to Act on Silica Dust
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (OVR) — A group of Ohio Valley senators says a watchdog agency’s recent report shows that federal regulators must do more to protect coal miners from silica dust, an… Read More
Federal Watchdog Finds Coal Safety Regulator Not Protecting Miners From Silica Dust
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (OVR) — The Mine Safety and Health Administration is not doing enough to protect coal miners from deadly silica dust, according to a new report from the Department of… Read More
Advocates Say Citizen Mining Complaint Process Weakened By Rule Change
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (OVR) — Environmental and community advocates in Appalachian coal communities are concerned about a new federal rule, finalized this week, that is changing the process that allows citizens… Read More
Murray Energy Exits Bankruptcy, Rehires Union Miners
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (OVR) — Coal mining giant Murray Energy Corp. has emerged from bankruptcy with a new name and a commitment to rehire all of its former union employees,… Read More
Remembering A Miner Who Personified Coal’s Contributions And Costs
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Charles Wayne Stanley ran underground mining machines for some 20 years, cutting coal from beneath the hills where Virginia meets Kentucky along the Cumberland ridge. He spent another decade as… Read More
Former Blackjewel Miners Could Get More Money From Proposed Settlement
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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CASPER, Wyo. (OVR) — A proposed $17.3 million settlement of a class action lawsuit would provide additional payment for hundreds of Appalachian coal miners who were suddenly left jobless by… Read More
Mine Safety Officials Won’t Do More To Protect Coal Miners From COVID-19, Letter Says
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (OVR) —The Mine Safety and Health Administration is declining to issue an emergency temporary standard that could protect coal miners whose jobs make them vulnerable to the coronavirus…. Read More
Oversight Office: MSHA Should Do More To Protect Miners In Pandemic
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (OVR) — The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has not done enough to protect coal miners during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from an oversight agency released Tuesday…. Read More
Coal and COVID-19: Lung Impairment Makes Miners Especially Vulnerable to Coronavirus
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WHITESBURG, Ky. (OVR) — Underground coal miners start their shifts getting changed in closely packed changing rooms. They ride rail cars to their worksite, shoulder-to-shoulder, sometimes for more than an… Read More
‘There’s Going To Be Something Better for Him’: Former Blackjewel Miners Reflect on Changes in Coal Country
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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On a blistering August afternoon in Cumberland, Kentucky, David Pratt, Jr. stood in the middle of a two-lane highway, holding a sign that read “COAL MINERS AND TRUCKERS AGAINST CORPORATE… Read More
UMWA Wants More Coronavirus Protections for Coal Miners
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The United Mine Workers of America is asking federal regulators to set uniform, enforceable guidelines to help protect coal miners from contracting COVID-19. In a letter dated Tuesday, March 24, UMWA President… Read More
Scientists, Mine Safety Officials Discuss Black Lung Protections
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Officials with the Mine Safety and Health Administration met for the first time with miners’ health researchers Wednesday in a new partnership designed to discuss ways to better protect coal miners from… Read More
More Unpaid Appalachian Miners Stage a Coal Train Blockade
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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For the second time since summer, eastern Kentucky coal miners are blockading a railroad track to protest unpaid wages. The new blockade, which was started Monday afternoon by Quest Energy… Read More
After Nearly A Decade Of Anxiety Over Pensions, Coal Miners See Light At The End Of The Tunnel
By: Becca Schimmel | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Union coal miners and retirees breathed a collective sigh of relief after the U.S. Senate passed a spending bill that includes support for miners’ pensions, which had been at risk… Read More
Study Shows Surface Coal Miners are Exposed to Toxic Dust that Causes Black Lung
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Appalachian surface coal miners are consistently overexposed to toxic silica dust, according to new research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and surface mine dust contains more silica… Read More
MSHA Comment Period Shows Divide on Measures to Protect Miners Health
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The comment period has closed for the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rule on respirable silica, a major contributor to skyrocketing rates of lung disease among coal miners. The… Read More
Black Lung Trust Fund Likely Burdened by Murray Bankruptcy
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The recent bankruptcy of Murray Energy is likely to significantly increase the debt of a struggling federal trust fund that supports disabled miners’ health care expenses. According to court filings, Murray… Read More
Bill Addresses Pensions, Health Care for Miners, Retirees
By: John Raby | AP
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is co-sponsoring a bill with West Virginia’s two U.S. senators and others aimed at preserving the pensions of about 92,000 retired… Read More
Murray Energy’s Bankruptcy Could Bring Collapse of Coal Miners’ Pensions
By: Becca Schimmel | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The recent bankruptcy of Ohio Valley coal giant Murray Energy has renewed fears about the already shaky financial foundations of the pension plan that tens of thousands of miners and their families… Read More
Blackjewel Miners Get More of Their Pay as Labor Dept. Acts Against Bankrupt Company
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Coal miners who went without pay when mining company Blackjewel declared bankruptcy this June are one step closer to receiving lost wages. The checks come weeks after some of the… Read More