Miner sues for wrongful termination following fatal Bailey Mine accident
Lawsuit claims Core retaliated after worker raised safety concerns
A former mine foreman at Bailey Mine is suing Consol Energy and its newly rebranded company claiming he and another supervisor were fired after they raised concerns about safety at the sprawling underground coal operation in Greene County following the death of a miner in May.
Mark Smith filed the civil lawsuit July 29 in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas alleging senior leadership at Southpointe-based Core Natural Resources retaliated against him as he brought forward issues with “chronically understaffed” shifts and other problems that allegedly put crews in danger.
A half-ton of rocks fell and crushed 34-year-old miner Zachary Wolfe of Rices Landing at Bailey in Aleppo Township on May 19, leading to a post-accident debriefing in which other workers echoed safety concerns shared by Smith, according to the lawsuit. Several days after the debriefing, the lawsuit claims that Smith was summoned to a meeting with four corporate officials and “berated” for more than two hours in which they told him he should have backed up management and “stopped the miners from bad-mouthing” the company.
Not long after the meeting, Smith was fired from the company after working in the mining industry for 17 years and despite having a “strong positive rating” during an April performance review while running one of the top-producing shifts at the mine.
The lawsuit contends that Smith could not be fired from his position as an assistant mine foreman for adhering to the state’s Bituminous Coal Safety Act of 2008, which he is required to follow and must allow miners working below him to report safety concerns. Smith was required to follow the law or he would be confronted with the “impossible choice between obeying his statutory duties, or placing the corporate imperatives of his employer (and his need for a paycheck) above the law and the safety of people working in the mine,” the lawsuit claims.
Two weeks before the accident that killed Wolfe, the lawsuit claims Smith went to a supervisor and raised issues about staffing and experience, while asking to move more veteran miner operators to his section and reducing the production quotas, but his requests were rebuffed. The lawsuit states that the production quota for each section at Bailey was a “fixed number that never flexes” even if there are fewer workers than the normal allotment for a crew, which often ran short on men.
“If a crew of 10 is short two or three men, the same tonnage must come out of fewer hands. Something has to give and it is never the coal,” the lawsuit states.
Brian Young, who was an assistant shift supervisor working under Smith, is also suing the company in a concurrent lawsuit. According to Smith’s lawsuit, he and Young attended the debriefing on May 21 two days after Wolfe’s death with 20 to 25 other miners in what was described as an emotional meeting with a therapist where several of the workers spoke up about safety. The miners discussed how if there were more experienced workers in the area, the “accident would not have happened,” the lawsuit states.
About 30 to 45 minutes into the meeting, the therapist left the room and was gone for an extended period before three high-level company officials came “marching toward the room” and demanded to know what was being discussed, according to the lawsuit. Smith told management that they were regularly short on manpower, and Young – who was off on short-term disability when the accident occurred – backed up that assessment.
The following day on May 22, Smith heard a rumor that he and Young had been fired, although he was on vacation by then and did not return for another week. Smith was told not to report to work on multiple occasions, but did have a June 2 meeting with management and a human resources worker in which he was berated for his handling of the debriefing with the miners, according to the lawsuit.
Smith was fired June 5 for “unsatisfactory work performance,” while Young was demoted and transferred to another portal upon his return from disability leave on June 15 before he was “constructively discharged,” the lawsuit states.
“A miner or mine official must be able to report dangers in the mine without fear of retaliation,” the lawsuit states.
Less than two months after Wolfe’s death, a contractor suffered mortal injuries July 10 while working at Bailey Mine. Thomas Edward Cooley, 49, of Crucible, was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at an unidentified hospital for 10 days before dying July 20, according to his obituary and a Go Fund Me page set up by his family to help pay for medical expenses.
CONSOL Energy and Arch Resources merged in January 2025, creating Core Natural Resources. A spokeswoman for Core declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday afternoon.
“Core does not comment on pending litigation or other ongoing legal proceedings,” the company said in a written statement. “We will address the matter through the appropriate legal process and have no further comment at this time.”
Smith’s lawsuit asks for back pay, front pay, damages to his reputation, loss of future earnings and punitive damages among other demands. Upper St. Clair-based attorney Charles Lamberton, who filed the lawsuit and is representing Smith, did not return phone messages seeking comment.
Bailey Mine is part of the company’s Pennsylvania Mining Complex that also includes Harvey and Enlow Fork mines below Greene and Washington counties near the West Virginia panhandle.