CHARLESTON – A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction that would halt the job cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that could have affected black lung screenings.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued her order May 13 in the case of a Kanawha County coal miner who sued the federal government over recent layoffs at the NIOSH facility in Morgantown. In his April 7 complaint, Harry Wiley sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and said he is personally affected by layoffs at the NIOSH facility.
Hundreds of workers at the Morgantown NIOSH facility learned earlier this year they were losing their jobs. The NIOSH Respiratory Health Division focuses on preventing work-related respiratory diseases, and the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program studies respiratory disease in miners and provides health screenings and information, mostly about black lung.
“Does the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services genuinely believe that a miner diagnosed with black lung is not being injured when the program designed to confirm his condition and provide him with workplace protections to prevent its progression is rendered inaccessible?” Berger wrote. “This court does not share such a belief.”
During a May 14 budget hearing in Washington, Kenney confirmed the return of some NIOSH jobs. He said 328 employees were reinstated at NIOSH facilities in Morgantown and Cincinnati. He said about a third of those were Morgantown jobs.
Kennedy also said the black lung screening program and the CWHSP are being fully reinstated as well as occupational safety and testing such as respiratory testing programs.
Berger ordered Kennedy to submit written certification within 20 days that DHHS has complied with her order.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she has spoken to Kennedy about the jobs.
“Now, of course, there’s still a lot that are under that reduction in force, but we are slowly getting back,” she said May 15 on MetroNews’ “Talkline” program. “One thing he told me is that the functions of the office will still be there. In other words, the protections of our workers, our coal miners and others that NIOSH does such a good job with.
“So this was just a pressure campaign that we all put on the president to re-look at this, and he did.”
Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) also appeared on “Talkline” and said knew President Donald Trump’s administration would fix things.
“We’ve all pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed, but at the end of the day, I really think that President Trump is going to do the right thing,” Justice said. “You know, he’s my buddy, and I really believe that we’ve got to do the right thing, especially for coal miners.”
On social media, Justice praised Trump and Kennedy.
“As I have said before: The way you tackle a problem is you freeze everything, you stop everything for a time period where you can really get your hands around it, and then make the right decisions,” Justice wrote. “President Donald J. Trump and Secretary Kennedy are doing just that and protecting our coal miners.”
The state Democratic Party praised attorney Sam Petsonk and attorneys with Mountain State Justice for their work on the case.
“While West Virginia’s Republican congressional delegation offered tepid letters and half-hearted requests to the Trump administration, others were taking real action — by challenging the administration's cold-hearted actions in court,” state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin said. “This is what standing up for miners looks like.”
Petsonk praised Berger’s ruling.
“America’s coal miners won an injunction today reversing the federal government’s closure of NIOSH’s miners’ health programs, including the Part 90 low-dust transfer and miners’ health screening programs,” he said. “These programs are more urgent than ever as Appalachian coal miners cut through massive amounts of highly-toxic sandstone to reach the thin coal seams that remain in our heavily-depleted coal basin.”
Petsonk said the ruling shows the importance of the judiciary.
“I’m glad to see the Administration already taking some initial steps in the direction of complying with the order. America’s coal miners deserve nothing less, and in fact they deserve a heck of a lot more,” he said. “The United Mine Workers of America in southern West Virginia struck and picketed to create these federal miners’ health programs, which have protected working people worldwide — from African emerald miners to Italian stonecutters to rare earth miners and beyond. And it was southern West Virginia miners again today who stepped up to save these programs by bringing this lawsuit.”
Puskin said Petsonk “deserves enormous credit” for the legal victory.
“His leadership and legal expertise stood in stark contrast to the hollow political gestures we saw from our Republican representatives,” Pushkin said. “Senator (Jim) Justice had the audacity to say that we just ‘need a pause’ — as if life were a Netflix show and not a daily struggle to survive in West Virginia.
“Sure, that strategy might work for Justice when he’s stiffing his creditors or dodging court judgments, but most out-of-work West Virginians don’t have the luxury of hitting the pause button on their mortgage, car payment, or grocery bill. Try telling the electric company you’re taking a Justice-style timeout and see how fast the lights go out.
“While Jim Justice and the Trump administration are 'taking a pause,' real West Virginians are falling behind — and they can’t afford the senator’s version of fantasy economics.”
Pushkin said state GOP leaders trying to take credit for the NIOSH job reinstatements is “conveniently omitting the fact that it took a federal court order to compel them to do what they should have done from the start.”
“This is not leadership by the Republican delegation or the Trump administration,” Pushkin said. “This is accountability, imposed by the courts. And it only happened because people like Sam Petsonk and brave coal miners stood up and fought back. They won — and all of West Virginia wins because of it.”
In his case, Wiley is being represented by Petsonk of Petsonk PLLC in Beckley and by Bren Pomponio of Mountain State Justice in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:25-cv-00227