Jun 5, 2025 By Garrett Neese 5 min read

The Mine Safety and Health Administration office in Waynesburg has been taken off the chopping block.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the reversal of lease terminations listed on the Department of Government Efficiency website in March for 34 MSHA offices. In Pennsylvania, those include the Waynesburg office, as well as those in Frackville, Mount Pleasant and Warrenville.

Local mine safety advocates cheered the reversal, even as they said there was more work to be done.

Miners were happy about the change of heart, said Chuck Knisell, International District 2 vice president for the United Mine Workers of America — though he wasn’t sure why it was even considered. Knisell had spoken at town halls through coal country, including one in Carmichaels in May, about how closing the facilities and terminating inspectors would make the mines less safe. More pressure had also come on Capitol Hill from U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, who pushed for the cuts to be reversed, Knisell said.

“The coal miners always pull at the heartstrings of the community,” Knisell said. “…In this case, the thought of the miners not having those protections, I think it went a long way, and the message obviously got back to the administration.”

With two mines employing about 2,700 people in Greene County, it’s a service the area needs, said county Commissioner Blair Zimmerman.

“I had a person say to me, ‘Well, these mines have safety committee people,'” he said. “It’s not the same as having an outsider who’s not fearful of saying what needs to be done and what’s not right. And so I think that’s a great thing.”

Knisell credited MSHA — and the enforcement authority it can bring against mines that cut corners — with drastically reducing the level of fatalities and injuries.

MSHA inspectors are obligated to inspect mines multiple times a year to ensure they’re operating safely — twice a year for surface mines and four times a year for underground mines, according to the MSHA website.

The rate of fatalities has dropped even when factoring in the reduced number of coal miners, which is at about 10% of the number in the early 1920s.

In 2023, the most recent year available, MSHA recorded nine fatalities, or about one for every 7,626 miners. When MSHA was established in 1978, it was one out of every 2,411.

“The miners need to have MSHA,” Knisell said. “MSHA’s there to make sure things are handled correctly with the ventilation, your roof support, all those things.”

Knisell said UMWA is still looking for clarity from the government on whether other MSHA cuts would continue, including to offices in Kentucky.

Nick Hood, senior organizer for Center for Coalfield Justice in Washington, said he hoped to see the level of protection for miners go back to where it was before the DOGE cuts, if not stronger. The remaining MSHA cuts are a worry, he said.

So are the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health cuts in Allegheny County. Of the 200 workers that were fired, dozens were hired back, though mining research workers remained laid off.

Still, Hood said, keeping the MSHA leases was a positive step.

“There’s more that needs to be done, but it’s definitely welcoming, and we’re really glad that these folks can get back to their jobs and protect the workers,” he said.

Few details had ever been provided beyond the initial announcement of the MSHA cuts, Knisell said. A closing date for the office had never been announced, nor had it been known whether the office would be fully closed down or moved to another address.

Representatives at the Waynesburg office could not be reached for comment. The MSHA district office in Mount Pleasant referred a request for comment to the national office, which had not been available for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.

Hood said the Center for Coalfield Justice had been active in pushing UMWA to take a stance, as well as legislators. The organization’s next priority will be working to get the government to unpause a rule that would cut in half the amount of respirable crystalline silica permitted in mines. The rule, which was intended to curb black lung and other respiratory problems for miners, had been slated to go into effect in April, but was pushed due to the NIOSH cuts and other factors.

Hood was hopeful the changes signaled a turn away from previous Trump administration actions, which he regarded as aimed at helping the coal industry at the expense of the miners themselves.

“What he might be saying in the media and what’s happening in policy, it isn’t lining up,” he said. “So if he wants to build up the coal miner, do things like passing the silica rule and getting better protections … hopefully it’s just the first step in the process of really taking care of the miners and people in extreme industries like that in general.”