Federal Mining Research Workers Are Still In Limbo

A Pittsburgh-based mining research team at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was not called back to work like others in the agency.

Staff of the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program in Morgantown were notified on Tuesday that they would not be terminated, as were other units in NIOSH.

Lilas Soukup, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1916 said the mining research team of more than 100 works closely with the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, also based in Pittsburgh. Those workers were also reinstated, she said.

“In the scheme of things, it’s a small number of people, obviously, within the federal government, but they do perform an extremely important task,” Soukup said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services placed hundreds of NIOSH workers on administrative leave last month and issued them termination notices.

A federal judge in Charleston on Tuesday ordered HHS to restore the coal worker health monitoring program, siding with a West Virginia coal miner who sued the agency.

“Losing the services of these experienced and dedicated employees is an aspect of the irreparable harm to the miners and the public that cannot and should not be ignored,” wrote U.S. District Judge Irene Berger in a 31-page decision.

Harry Wiley, the Kanawha County miner who brought the lawsuit, was diagnosed last year with an early stage of black lung disease.

He applied for a Part 90 transfer, which would move him to a part of the mine with less exposure to toxic dust that would worsen his condition.

NIOSH processes those applications, and Wiley had no other options while the program was shut down.

Current and former black lung experts at NIOSH testified in a hearing last week in Berger’s courtroom.

On Tuesday, they received an email from NIOSH Director John Howard that they were reinstated.

“While we celebrate with those who received a rescission letter from HHS, I am mindful that others did not,” Howard wrote. “I am hopeful that we can continue to make the case for reinstating everyone at NIOSH.”

Members of Congress from West Virginia and Pennsylvania have been pushing for HHS to reverse the cuts at NIOSH.

On Tuesday, Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Pennsylvania Democrat, celebrated the workers who were called back but said he’d advocate for more.

“We still need to get the folks on the NIOSH mining research team saved from planned firings,” he said. “But this is an important public safety win.”