By Mike Tony, Williamson Daily News
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Unions and occupational safety providers say the federal agency with statutory responsibility to protect workers’ health and safety through research remains decimated by the Trump administration, a disruption of programs and services that will result in more disabling injuries, illnesses and premature deaths for American workers.
The unions and safety providers said so in a Wednesday federal court filing that updated a complaint they filed in May against Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his agency asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop an effective shutdown of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Established by federal law in 1970, the HHS-housed NIOSH is responsible for performing research and making recommendations to prevent work-related illness and injury. The agency has been critical in advancing protections against mine dust, hazardous chemicals and other threatening conditions while working with the Department of Labor to maintain occupational safety and health statistics.
But nearly a dozen unions, including the United Mine Workers of America, said in their Wednesday court filing the Trump administration has persisted in unlawfully eliminating NIOSH divisions that carry out statutorily required functions that safeguard workers’ health.
