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HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE COAL MINES

MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1970

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE

LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE COMMITTEE,

Charleston, W. Va.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, in the courtroom of the Federal Building, Charleston, W. Va., Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr., chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.

Present: Senators Williams (presiding) and Randolph.
Staff member present: Gerald Feder, associate counsel.

Senator WILLIAMS. We will now receive testimony on health and

safety in the coal mines.

Our first witness on this matter is Mr. James Leeber.

Do you have a statement prepared for us?

Mr. LEEBER. No.

Senator WILLIAMS. All right. You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF JAMES LEEBER, PRESIDENT, DISTRICT 29, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA; ACCOMPANIED BY CHARLES H. BROWNING, SAFETY COORDINATOR OF DISTRICT 29

Mr. LEEBER. Mr. Chairman, Senator Randolph, first of all I want to express our appreciation for having an opportunity to appear before your committee. I would like to briefly, as much as possible, outline the activities of the United Mine Workers of America in the area of coal mine safety in the State of West Virginia in particular.

I have been associated with the organization as a member since 1933 and as a representative of the organization for the past 29 years. For the past 28 years I have also represented the organization in the capacity as State legislative representative.

Prior to my appointment as president of district 29, I served in the capacity also as safety director of district 29 and my duties in that area pertained to coal mine safety in general.

I want to say that in the early years after 1942, at which time I began my legislative duties on the legislative committee, the mineworkers in the State of West Virginia in session after session have proposed changes in the West Virginia mining law and safety. Apparently we did not generate sufficient support to get the coal mine safety laws of this State amended in order to keep up with the present technology and advancement of automation and mechanization of coal mines.

It has been our experience that even in the mechanization and automation of coal mines the manufacturers of equipment for this indus

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try have secondarily taken safety very reluctantly. Their primary objective in manufacturing equipment for this industry was for the increase in productivity of coal.

I want to say one of the most stringent legislative battles that our organization has ever been confronted with was in the year 1951 at which time the question arose amending the West Virginia mining law in respect to the preshift examiner of a coal mine better known in coal mine language as the fire boss of a coal mine. The old law that existed prior to July 1, 1951, contained a provision whereby no one was authorized to make a preshift examination of a coal mine other than an authorized fire boss who was duly qualified and certified by the State of West Virginia.

That particular section of the law was contested by the coal operators of this State and the chief secured an attorney general's opinion which sustained him at that time the director of the department of mines who was referred to as chief. The mine law has been changed from chief of the department of mines to the director of the department of mines. They sustained the chief's interpretation of the law, the attorney general's office did, that no one but a duly authorized or certified fire boss could make a preshift examination of the coal mines.

That case was appealed by the coal association and the operators in general to the circuit court of Kanawha County and the attorney general's opinion was sustained and also it was appealed to the State supreme court and the State supreme court sustained the opinion of the circuit court.

In order to get that provision of the law changed, the coal association introduced a bill in the 1951 session of the legislature whereby it would be permissible lawfully that any certified person who had qualified as a fire boss under the West Virginia mining law would be lawfully entitled to make a preshift examination of the coal mines. Now what they did, in changing the law these supervisors served in dual capacities. One capacity was in the production of coal and the other capacity was supposed to have been in the area of coal mine safety making a preshift examination of the mines. However, since that time we have not as a union been successful to amend the mining law as we felt it was desirable and assure the maximum degree of safety to the men employed in the industry. We have always encountered a legislative battle between the coal operators of the State and the union.

However, in the year 1957 a joint committee was formulated between the coal association and the mine workers to try to revise the West Virginia mining law since it had become antiquated and was predicated on the old system of coal mining. Then through the committee we were trying to revise it and did revise it as nearer to the standard of the Federal statute. However, it didn't meet the requirements that coal mine safety should.

I think the Congress of the United States, and the act was passed by the Congress in 1969, comes nearer to meeting this requirement to modern day coal mining and that it has complied in serving the health and safety of the men who are engaged in the occupation of coal mining.

I want to say that in my judgment serving as the director of safety of the district for 15 years I feel one of the most essential and one of

the most important to assure the maximum degree of coal mine safety is the preshift examining of a mine before each coal producing shift. I will state without any fear of contradiction that as of today I don't think there is a mine in the State of West Virginia that is meeting the preshift examination of a coal mine entirely in conformity with the present State law, not disregarding the past law.

For this reason we have multiple coal producing shifts today in the coal mining industry that produce coal three shifts a day. Lawfully these mines are classified in the State law and are required to employ what is known as the fire boss or preshift examiner that has been certified by the State department of mines.

Under today's regulation anyone holding such a certificate can lawfully perform these duties. At the time that we were opposing the amending of the old mining law by restricting these preshift coal mine examiners, the fire bosses, the fire boss of a mine, that was because we felt that this would be one of the most important functions of coal mine safety. In other words, a preshift examiner has to examine under the law from the drift mouth if it is a drift mine or the shaft bottom if it is a shaft mine or if it is a slope at the opening of the surface that proceeds underground. They are to examine all active roadways, travelways, haulways, face areas, and set a limitation of time in which this work is to be performed before the men are permitted to enter the mine to perform work.

Senator WILLIAMS. Is this the 1957 enactment?

Mr. LEEBER. No. What I am speaking of, this is what is in existence in this State today.

Senator WILLIAMS. That is the law?

Mr. LEEBER. That is the law.

Senator WILLIAMS. When was that enacted?

Mr. LEEBER. That has been enacted-well, I would say it has been before my time, back since I was engaged in the safety work. Senator WILLIAMS. Is this before every shift?

Mr. LEEBER. Sir?

Senator WILLIAMS. Is this before every shift?
Mr. LEEBER. That is right.

Senator WILLIAMS. That is the law?

Mr. LEEBER. That is what the law specifies and requires at this time, but under the old law this work was to be performed by the regular employed fire boss.

Senator WILLIAMS. Who does it now?

Mr. LEEBER. Now the regular employed fire boss. We have a verbal agreement with the coal association or the coal operators for the first coal producing shift of the day it will be done by the regular employed fire boss but the subsequent shifts, the next or third shift, can be done by a foreman who does it on duty while he is also in charge of producing coal. This is my judgment is one thing, that I think the 1969 act of the Congress provides, the preshift examination of the mine before each shift and the time limitation of 3 hours.

I would say this also: that if the preshift examination of a coal mine was done in conformity with the existing State law and done properly, it would probably increase the number of those preshift examiners by sixfold to do this job and do it within the time limitations provided in the law, and that is what I refer to. I refer to all the

areas in which the mine is to be examined before they change shift from one shift to enter the mine to work and the other shift completing its work going to the outside.

The Federal act of 1969 does not provide this, it only says that it has to be done by certified persons. However, I want to bring this to your attention: that the Legislature in considering the bill that was enacted in 1951 felt that the union's position was that we were trying to acquire more membership into our union by requesting that all of these individuals should be fire bosses that were entitled under the law to make the preshift examination of the mine.

However, that was not the intention of the union. We felt that by the accurate and diligent and proper preshift examination of the mine, determining the conditions in the area in which the men were to work, was a very, very major step toward coal mine safety. He had to examine the fire boss book, he had to examine for ventilation, he had to examine all the seals, he had to examine the active working places, roadways, travelways, haulways that the men have to travel through or work in in order to determine their safety. I would say this is one area in which I think a broader emphasis will have to be placed in the direction of securing greater and more maximum coal mine safety.

Now I will say that there are a lot of hazards that confront coal mining. Naturally we know at any one time what is the principal hazard that eliminates or erases or kills the most men at any one instance and that is coal mine explosions. However, we do know, based on the record, that the contributing factor that kills more coal miners percentagewise is the result of falls of roof, face, and rib which contributes about 65 percent of our fatalities in the coal mines as of the past years. We had incidents that occurred similar to what occurred at the Consolidation No. 9 mine where the entire mine exploded and erased the lives of 78 men.

Senator WILLIAMS. Subcommittee counsel, Mr. Feder, will now proceed with the questioning.

Mr. FEDER. I would like to go back to the question of the fire boss that you raised earlier. This is in the Federal law that was just passed. In section 303 it requires the preshift examination before any shift by a certified person which I think the definition is fairly clear is a certified fire boss.

Are you suggesting that there are now still today the examinations taking place by the fire boss just before the first shift?

Mr. LEEBER. That is just for the first coal producing shift of the workday. That is only being performed, the preshift examination, by what is known as the regular employed fire boss, not by the supervision of management or section foreman who is certified to perform these duties. We feel that these preshift examinations of coal mines are to be conducted exclusively by people who are solely responsible in promoting safety at the mine level not jointly with production. We find in our experience that where this preshift examination is being made on other shifts by supervisor personnel of the management who are certified to conduct this work or perform these duties it is sort of a-well, I would say they have a dual purpose. Primarily what has been the past experience, production is first and safety is secondary. If they encounter a hazard that should be corrected instead

of producing an extra ton of coal, the ton of coal is put ahead of correcting the hazard.

Mr. FEDER. These supervisory personnel are certified by the State? Mr. LEEBER. Yes, they are. They are also in charge of supervising men in the production area of the mine who are employed as continuous mine operators or machine operators, cutting machine operators, helpers, shuttle car operators, roof bolters, or timbermen-all classifications of labor that are necessary to produce coal.

Mr. FEDER. Isn't there some way that you could get one of your safety committeemen to accompany him?

Mr. LEEBER. I have requested many, many times in my duties as a safety director trying to get an inspector from the U.S. Bureau of Mines or the State department of mines, the coal mining inspector be'fore he closed out his inspection at a particular mine, and he would make a run with all of these preshift examiners for the entire coal mining day to ascertain if they were performing their work as required by law. I had not been successful in having that accomplished. That is the only way you can get a true picture, to determine what type of examination is being made by these mine examiners.

Mr. FEDER. Has that request gone in to the district here?
Mr. LEEBER. Pardon me?

Mr. FEDER. Has this request gone in to Washington or the Bureau of Mines district here?

Mr. LEEBER. I would say in the past it has applied to both agencies. We have had, I would say, a lot more cooperation from the U.S. Bureau of Mines than we have had from the State department of mines.

Mr. FEDER. It just seems to me the request is a reasonable one and I cannot see why the Federal Bureau of Mines would not agree to do that. Have they given any reason for it?

Mr. LEEBER. Well, the question was that they were limited in personnel. Prior to the 1969 act there was no set time by law as to how often a Federal inspector was to make an inspection of a mine. The Bureau criterion at that time was pure and simple do it as often as they could. As long as they got an inspection made once a year they felt they were complying with the requirements of the law."

However, the primary intent of the Congress in the mining law that existed prior to 1969 was for the purpose of eliminating entirely what we refer to as mine disasters where possibly three or more men are killed in any one instance. In coal mine safety we find that the multiple of these fatalities and injuries occurs in single instances-I don't like to use the word "accident" because I think it is grossly misused too frequently. I would judge it was lack of enforcement of safety requirements or correcting unsafe working conditions and environment.

To continue further, I think the principal thing in the safety of coal mines is to provide the men a safe place in which to work, safe tools, and safe equipment at all times, guard against all of the mining hazards that could be created by the production of coal through the cycle that they usually follow during the day's work.

Ventilation is a very important thing. I think the 1969 act provided great improvement over the old statute in respect to ventilation by requesting a minimum of 9,000 cubic feet to the last open crosscut between a set of entries or rooms and in addition providing 3,000 cubic feet of the air circulating the face areas. That is the most

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