The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977: Preserving a law that works
The wisdom of the past has been that dead miners make the best lobbyists for mine safety laws. Today, this view suggests a troubling question: What happens to mine safety laws when the terrible disasters that produced legislation are rare? We should be grateful that the question is timely. It means that decades of progressively stronger laws have finally made a difference for miners, their families, and their communities. But this hard-won success has had one ironic result: Some people are tempted to believe that a strong statute is no longer necessary. In fact, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) should be preserved. Mining remains a high-risk industry, and tomarrow`s miners, just like today`s, need the protection of this well-crafted and effective law. Recent legislation (H.R. 1834) seemed to view the Mine Act as a relic of the past. It would have repealed the statute, a prospect that should trouble anyone familiar with the statute`s success. As introduced, the bill would have regulated mining under a scaled-back version of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), and eliminated the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) as well. A host of important enforcement tools would have vanished in the process, including MSHA`s right of entry into mines, certain mandatory inspections, most civil fines, and the use of withdrawal orders except in cases of imminent danger. The bill would have made it far more difficult to issue effective safety and health standards and to preserve existing standards. Miners and their unions, as well as some industry representatives, rightly raised concerns about the bill. Now is a good time, then, to review what federal mine safety laws have achieved and how they did it. Working conditions in America`s mines are, indeed, better. They are better because of the current law and the legislation that preceded it, as representatives of the mining industry acknowledge.
- OSTI ID:
- 376879
- Journal Information:
- West Virginia Law Review, Vol. 98, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Sum 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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