The president of the United Mine Workers of America is criticizing Trump administration policies he says could negatively affect coal miners and coal exports.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts said Trump’s proposed fees on international shipping and cuts to safety and health agencies threaten the competitiveness of coal and the health and safety of mine workers.
“There is a perfect storm brewing in America’s coalfields that will have the effect of destroying thousands of coal miners’ jobs and significantly increase the risks those miners who are left will face to their health and safety on the job,” Roberts said in a statement Tuesday.
A quarter of the coal mined in the United States is exported, including half the coal mined in West Virginia. The U.S. Trade Representative, however, has proposed a fee of up to $1.5 million each time a Chinese-built ship docks at a U.S. port.
The West Virginia Coal Association opposes the fee. Roberts said it would close mines, causing thousands of layoffs – and soon.
“This proposal is designed to help rebuild the American shipbuilding industry over years, and we support that principle,” he said. “But today, most exported U.S. coal is carried on Chinese-made ships.”
Roberts is also critical of the federal government’s termination of office leases for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, as well as cuts to the staff of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“From what we have learned, MSHA personnel still have no idea if or when they will be moving to a new location or even if they will have a job any longer,” Roberts said, referring to the potential closure of 34 agency offices.
The “significant downsizing” of personnel at NIOSH offices in Pittsburgh and Morgantown, West Virginia, “are particularly devastating to the coal industry,” Roberts said.
Both agencies have improved the safety and health of coal miners, he said.