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'In a major push': Trump's 'real people' are fighting back against the president -- and winning
When the Trump administration took the first steps toward shutting down two major programs aimed at protecting the nation’s miners, the grassroots response was immediate, and vehement.
d by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.
And, it turns out, successful.
In March, the administration moved to shutter over 30 field offices of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, throughout coal country. Weeks later, it proposed cutting 90 percent of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Health. That would have killed its efforts to screen miners for black lung and treat that progressive, fatal disease, which is caused by chronic exposure to silica dust.
Miners and their advocates swiftly demanded that President Donald Trump, who has never shied away from celebrating coal miners as “real people,” change course. The United Mine Workers of America, the Black Lung Association, and environmental groups like Appalachian Voices came together to protest the cuts and tell lawmakers to back their calls to undo them. Two miners sued the administration, arguing the government is not meeting its obligations to protect those who produce a resource Trump deemed a “critical mineral” in an April 8 executive order vowing to restore the coal industry.
The administration seems to have heard them, at least in part. Late last month, MSHA offices were quietly removed from the list of government buildings slated for closure and sale. The administration also has reinstated hundreds of occupational health workers, including some of those in the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program.
d by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.
And, it turns out, successful.
In March, the administration moved to shutter over 30 field offices of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, throughout coal country. Weeks later, it proposed cutting 90 percent of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Health. That would have killed its efforts to screen miners for black lung and treat that progressive, fatal disease, which is caused by chronic exposure to silica dust.
Miners and their advocates swiftly demanded that President Donald Trump, who has never shied away from celebrating coal miners as “real people,” change course. The United Mine Workers of America, the Black Lung Association, and environmental groups like Appalachian Voices came together to protest the cuts and tell lawmakers to back their calls to undo them. Two miners sued the administration, arguing the government is not meeting its obligations to protect those who produce a resource Trump deemed a “critical mineral” in an April 8 executive order vowing to restore the coal industry.
The administration seems to have heard them, at least in part. Late last month, MSHA offices were quietly removed from the list of government buildings slated for closure and sale. The administration also has reinstated hundreds of occupational health workers, including some of those in the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-coal/