Putting Safety First: Strengthening Enforcement and Creating A Culture of Compliance at Mines and Other Dangerous Workplaces

The topic of today’s hearing couldn’t be more timely or more important, in the wake of the West Virginia coal mining disaster that killed 29 miners; the refinery explosion in Anacortes, WA, where seven workers died; the disaster that killed six people at a Connecticut natural gas power plant; and, just last week, a blast, on the Louisiana oil rig, off the Gulf of Mexico, that most likely killed 11 workers. It is time to focus renewed attention on the safety of our fellow workers. This string of recent worker deaths and injuries is a grim reminder that too many employers cut corners on safety, too many workers pay the price with their lives.