CHARLESTON — Two unions have filed a petition with a federal appeals court against the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) asking for protection against the contraction of infectious diseases for union miners.
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union want an emergency petition for a writ of mandamus and are requesting an expedited briefing and disposition, according to the petition filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June 11.
"The situation confronting miners is urgent," the petition states. "Miners have largely been designated as 'essential' workers and thus are currently working at mine sites across the country."
The petition states that as government-imposed stay-at-home orders are lifted and the demand for mine-produced resources increases, more miners will return to work at pre-pandemic levels.
"Given the urgency of the situation confronting miners in the United States, the Unions further request that this Court establish an expedited briefing and disposition of the petition," the petition states. "With respect to the briefing, the Unions propose that MSHA be allowed ten (10) days to respond to the petition and that the Unions be required to submit their reply within two (2) days of MSHA’s response."
The global pandemic has produced the type of workplace catastrophe that Congress intended MSHA to address with an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), the petition states, but while the numbers change daily, more than 2 million people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 115,000 people in the United States have died from the disease.
The petitioners believe that many more likely have the disease but have not been tested and many others likely died of the disease but have not been counted.
A significant portion of those infected and dying from COVID-19 are classified as “essential” workers and infection rates are particularly high for industrial workers who operate in close proximity, most notably meatpackers.
"The working conditions at the meatpacking plants are similar, but generally not as dangerous, to those found in the nation’s mines," the petition states. "As the economy reopens, production increases and more miners return to work for a greater number of hours, person-to-person contact in the nation’s mines will increase and health experts predict that the already shocking number of infections and deaths among workers will worsen."
The UMWA petitioned MSHA to issue an ETS in March, but MSHA declined to issue it in April. UMWA submitted a second petition in May, which MSHA declined to respond to.
The petition states that MSHA's pandemic response was wholly inadequate in addressing the safety and health hazards that miners face because they don't account for the specific hazards faced by coal miners.
The petition argues that if MSHA failes to issue an ETS, it puts the lives of thousands of miners in jeopardy due to their increased exposure to the coronavirus.