The Department of Labor’s MSHA is offering this grant to enhance mine health and safety through state programs.

As part of its work to expand the availability of Good Jobs in all sectors, the Department of Labor is committed to creating equitable pathways to the safe, stable, good-paying jobs that allow workers the right to organize and give them an opportunity to thrive, not just get by. One of the Secretary of Labor’s goals for the U.S. workforce is to build a modern, inclusive workforce. As outlined in the Department’s FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, strategic goal 2 is to “Ensure Safe Jobs, Essential Protections, and Fair Workplaces.” MSHA’s role in accomplishing this objective is to “prevent fatalities, disease, and injury from mining, and secure safe and healthful working conditions for America’s miners.” The Secretary of Labor, through MSHA, may award grants to state, tribal, and territorial governments (including the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) to assist them in developing and enforcing state mining laws and regulations, improve state workers’ compensation and mining occupational disease laws and programs, and improve safety and health conditions in the nation’s mines through Federal-State coordination and cooperation.  

MSHA recognizes that state training programs are a key source of mine safety and health training and education for individuals who work or will work at mines. MSHA encourages state training programs to prioritize health and safety training for small mining operations, underserved mines, miners, and independent contractors within the mining industry, and to prioritize diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. MSHA is also interested in supporting programs that emphasize training on miners’ statutory rights, including the right to be provided a safe and healthy working environment, to refuse an unsafe task, to have a voice in the safety and health conditions at the mine, and access to effective training that may include presenting it in the language that miners can understand.

MSHA recently published two final rules to improve the health and safety of our nation’s miners, i.e., lowering exposure to respirable crystalline silica and improving respiratory protection, and a safety program for surface mobile equipment. As part of our Federal-State partnership, MSHA will share compliance assistance materials with grantees to assist operators in complying with the new rules. These materials include training that operators may adapt to educate miners as to how these rules apply to the health and safety conditions of their work. MSHA is strongly encouraging grantees to develop training materials on these new rules for the mining industry and to make that training a priority in their training programs.

The Agency encourages grantees to address, in their training and education programs, mine emergency preparedness, mine rescue, electrical safety, contract and customer truck drivers, improving training for new and inexperienced miners, managers and supervisors performing mining tasks, pillar safety for underground mines, and falls from heights.

The Agency encourages grantees to focus training programs on the causes and prevention of fatal accidents that have occurred in the mining industry. More information about fatalities can be found on MSHA’s webpage at: https://www.msha.gov/data-reports/fatality-reports/search.