Labor leaders cheer reversal of NIOSH cuts
Garrett Neese
Last week’s reversal of cuts to a federal organization behind miner safety programs drew praise from labor leaders.
About 1,000 employees of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — representing about 90% of the agency’s workforce — were placed on administrative leave in April. About 30% of those cuts had been rescinded the next month.
On Jan. 13, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the remaining positions would be coming back.
The announcement came after months of public pushback, protests and lawsuits by the United Mine Workers of America and other groups, who argued the administration had bypassed Congress to impose cuts that threatened the lives of workers.
“While we are glad to see these positions restored, we are disappointed these cuts were made in the first place,” UMWA International President Brian Sanson said in a statement after the cuts. “The UMWA will never stop fighting to keep all miners as safe as possible at work and a functioning NIOSH is a key part of that.”
The restored positions include a Pittsburgh unit researching ways to improve mining safety and a Morgantown, W.Va team researching and monitoring black lung in miners.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents NIOSH, had stayed in contact with UMWA and the Mine Safety Health Administration after the cuts as part of their efforts to undo them, said Lilas Soukup, president of AFGE Local 1916 in Pittsburgh.
In addition to research into problems such as silica dust, in the case of an accident, Pittsburgh’s NIOSH team also provides rescue assistance and makes suggestions on ways to prevent similar events in the future, Soukup said.
”We’re glad we’re back,” she said. “Obviously the individuals are happy, because most of them are dedicated researchers. They just want to do their job … The miners are happy, obviously, to have that extra resource also there.”
Soukup said the next hurdle will be making sure the next federal budget fully funds the programs. Neither HHS nor the U.S. Department of Labor had been part of the omnibus packages approved by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate.
Hopefully whatever funding is approved will be able to maintain the workforce that is there, Soukup said. Another step will be restoring the offices to prior levels. In the months since the Department of Government Efficiency cuts, many workers have since found other jobs or retired.
“Unfortunately, the hiring process isn’t going to be very swift, because based on the executive order you can only hire back one for every four that you lost,” she said.
Speaking on Friday, Soukup didn’t have a final count of how many workers would be returning to the office. Many were still trying to line up child care or make other arrangements, she said.
Soukup appreciated the support from other mining and labor organizations in its lawsuits — “so many we can’t even count” — to restore employees.
“My gratitude goes out to all of those that help to support us,” she said. “It is definitely going to be taking an amount of stress and anxiety from those workers, and we’re just going to see where it goes.”