Rock Products

OCT 2011

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FOCUS ON HEALTH & SAFETY Storm Clouds Forming over MSHA By James Sharpe It is a convenient reason for justifying stepped up en‐ forcement in the metal/non‐metal sector, but Assistant Secretary Joe Main's ongoing explanation that Congress made the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) do it, is a canard nonetheless. We all know Congress ratchets up the rhetoric after every mine tragedy and certainly there have been enough catas‐ trophes over the past five years to keep the oratory flow‐ ing nearly non‐stop. West Virginia's two senators, Jay Rockefeller and the late Robert Byrd, along with two Cali‐ fornia lawmakers, George Miller and Lynn Woolsey, have been especially vocal. Still, we have yet to hear any cur‐ rent member of Congress charge MSHA with weak en‐ forcement in the aggregate sector and demand that the safety agency get tougher there. In fact, we have heard just the opposite. Reps. Denny Re‐ hberg and Tim Walberg, to name just two in the House, have expressed dismay over MSHA's enforcement pos‐ ture. Senators Charles Grassley and Mike Johanns are leading the way in the Senate, and their colleague, John Thune from South Dakota, has convinced the Labor De‐ partment's Inspector General a full‐fledged investigation into MSHA's enforcement practices is warranted. If Con‐ gress is making Main do anything, it is to lighten up in the non‐coal sector. Where's the Common Sense? A variation on Main's disingenuous our‐hands‐are‐tied theme is his statement that the congressionally created Mine Act requires inspectors to write any and all per‐ ceived violations. Section 104(a) does indeed say that. Yet that does not explain the big drop in citation‐free in‐ spections that has occurred recently. Zero‐citation in‐ spections are in the teens now, down from 49 percent, a figure provided in 2008 by Bob Friend, MSHA's now‐re‐ tired Ops chief. And some 88,000 citations currently under contest suggest a wide chasm between inspectors and operators in their perception of right and wrong. Common sense enforcement has been replaced with by‐ the‐book enforcement. The truth is that Main's two‐decade‐plus background as a union safety director predisposes him to think manage‐ ment is the bad guy and to use the power of government to rein it in. His experience, 100 percent of it in coal, may 44 ROCKproducts • OCTOBER 2011 well be a testament to that approach, but as rock sector managers have told him countless times, "We ain't coal." His first quarry visit ever, in August, brought him face‐to‐ face with his former union brethren, who presumably en‐ lightened him about what working in a quarry is really all about. Whether or not the experience was eye‐opening as it should have been, remains to be seen. In any case, the agency finally seems to be getting the message it needs to apply the velvet glove in its dealings outside coal. Citations, assessments and "significant and substantial" citations are dropping, although they still re‐ main at levels higher than the safety record justifies in quarries and sand mines. We believe this is due less to any epiphany the assistant secretary has experienced than to the harsh reality of politics. The agency is worried its budget will be cut, perhaps significantly. The concern is not misplaced. The Least of It Less funding actually may be the least of it. If Republicans hold the House and win the Senate next year, Main may be put into the unenviable position of overseeing the dis‐ memberment of the agency on his watch. An attempt was made about 15 years ago to separate some mining sectors from MSHA's jurisdiction. While it failed, operators are on firmer ground now because their safety record is so much better. They also have a long list of legitimate grievances. Main heard some of them first‐hand this summer: millions of dollars spent to correct phantom safety hazards associ‐ ated with guards and rub rails at weigh scales, and bogus citations written by inspectors competing for top enforce‐ ment honors because that was what their bosses re‐ warded. The prolonged economic downturn has devastated many mining businesses. Operators, already bitter and resentful over MSHA's enforcement hijinks, have turned vindictive because MSHA kicked them when they were down. One aggregates chief executive, not heretofore known for rocking the boat, put it succinctly. "Some of us are going out of business. In these economic times, we can't have this kind of oppressive regulatory environment. There has to be relief somewhere, and we'll be seeking it wher‐ ever we need to seek it." www.rockproducts.com

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