Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire MSHA- Mine Safety and Health, NOT MAKING A VACCINE RULE

Interesting, Sleepy Joe forgot to include MSHA ( separate agency, like OSHA, but for all surface and underground mines, quarries and gravel pits ) in his Executive order. OSHA has no jurisdiction over mines.

MSHA's ability to "temporarily shut down mine operations at facilities in which the coronavirus is found to be spreading", is per the mine inspectors interpretation, and is subject to contest and appeal to the court system. Inspector has to show an "imminent danger to life and health", to order a temporary shutdown.

MSHA won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccines, testing, acting administrator says
October 18, 2021 2 Comments
MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION MINER SAFETY MINERS

Arlington, VA — The Mine Safety and Health Administration will not require COVID-19 vaccination or weekly negative testing at the nation’s mines, Jeanette Galanis, MSHA deputy assistant secretary for policy and acting administrator, said during a Sept. 29 stakeholder conference call.

Galanis called the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 “one of the strongest worker protection acts in the world.” Under the act, MSHA can issue hygiene citations and temporarily shut down mine operations at facilities in which the coronavirus is found to be spreading, a provision “very different” than the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, under which OSHA operates. An emergency rule under development by OSHA will require employers with at least 100 workers to ensure full vaccination or weekly negative testing of their workforce.

Galanis and other agency officials on the call pointed to updated guidance, issued by MSHA in March, that advises mine operators at coal, metal and nonmetal mines to establish a virus protection program or augment an existing one. Best practices include:

Conduct a hazard assessment of the mine site.
Identify various measures that help limit the spread of COVID-19 in mines.
Adopt measures to ensure miners who are infected or potentially infected are separated and sent home.
Implement anti-retaliation measures for miners who raise concerns related to COVID-19.

The guidance also includes recommendations on the use of personal protective equipment, physical distancing strategies, improving ventilation, effective hygiene and routine cleaning.

“We must be able to inspect mines during COVID,” Galanis said, “and so our mine inspectors are doing their jobs and getting out there and trying to be as careful as possible.”

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MSHA is OSHA on steroids X 10
it aught ta tell ya sumpthin when they are not mandating the Vax.

MSHA inspectors can arrest you on sight if they want to.
OSHA can slap your hand and give your company a warning before they flip you a Fine.

^^^ As someone who is involved far more than I would like to be, MSHA will ALWAYS take any interpretation of laws to an extreme. Don't hold your breath that these jackboots won't implement Biden's policy on their own accord. You are guilty until proven innocent with this bunch.

Those are Sycamore’s people.

LOL

#extrabright

MSHA inspectors can arrest you on sight if they want to.
OSHA can slap your hand and give your company a warning before they flip you a Fine.[/quote]

Uh no that's BS.
Shutting down mines is worse than closing the Costco factory.

I’ve never known a MSHA rep arrest a single person. I grew up in a coal mining family. Dad was safety director, brother a mine boss. About 84 years between them. Never ever heard of them arresting anyone.

Dad would go to court to settle fines they received from MSHA. Most of the time the fines were dismissed.

The mine owners and operators that my brother now works for implements their own mask mandates. MSHA is forced to wear them if they want to come on mine property.

I worked at the RioTinto owned US Borax and we had a Certified MSHA Trainer as our Safety guy He Put the Fear of God into everyone of us about when the MSHA inspectors came around.
He told us to answer everyone of their questions Honestly even if we were dooming our selves or our Co Workers.
He Told us that the MSHA Inspectors go threw the Spook program with the Feds before they get to be MSHA Inspectors and Receive their Badge that make them Federal Agents.
He was the one that told our Crew that they Could and Would Arrest you on sight if you caused them any trouble or lied to them about what was going on.

I removed myself from the project before they came around so I have never been interviewed by one of them myself.

A former mine owner would buy quart jars of shine to hand out to them…..he called it “politicking”.

Not saying these guys didn’t do their jobs. They did and made working life PITA.

Oh, the stories I could tell about MSHA. I am so happy to be out of the industry.

Never heard of anyone being personally arrested by MSHA, but did work with a guy who was at Buck Creek when the FBI and MSHA swarmed it and shut it down. He said the most scared he's ever been was when the FBI guy with the drawn pistol said "sir step away from the computer".

They are just another inept .gov agency mostly full of power hungry aholes.



I am pretty certain this is correct. They receive interrogation training from one of the alphabet gang. Although, normally, I believe that kind of questioning is usually reserved for things like fatality investigations. I was involved with one of those, they suck on multiple levels.

We had another company ignore our red tape and went past our standing guard at the entrance to a building they pushed their way threw and said they speeky no englase.

Our crew that was working on the third level had a pipe elbow slip and fall right next to the guys that said they speeky no englase.
Near miss. No one was hurt.
They just about threw our crew in the pokey. The crew that walked threw our safety warnings and said that they speeky no englase was let go Scott free from the General Contractor.

That was until the MSHA Inspectors got wind of what happened.
HOLLY BLEEP BLEEP BLEED happened.
People were resigning the fines started rolling out.
I was told that the Gen Con got hit with something over 100K in fines.

Our Crew was just put on a type of probation and no fines came to our Company because we had all of the required warnings up and we had a Guard that tried to stop the other crew.
I am sure that our MSHA Trainer/Safety gut had a lot to do with the no fine as well. That guy was smart and tough.

FWIW. From a 40 year miner, engineer, manager, and blasting contractor; And most recently, 5 years as an MSHA Inspector.

* MSHA Inspectors have NO power of arrest.
* Inpectors can write civil citations or orders to the owners or managers of the company. They can issue an Imminent Danger order to immediately withdraw miners from a dangerous area until the hazard is corrected.
* The only penalty written directly to an individual miner is for smoking in a posted No Smoking area like an explosives magazine, $250.
* Inspectors receive 22 weeks of formal training broken into 6 modules, at the MSHA Academy in Beckley, WV, plus about one year of OJT with experienced inspectors. NO FBI or spook training.
* MSHA can and has filed criminal charges against the owners or managers of a company for deliberate, willful violations of serious safety standards that could kill or seriously injure miners, after an in depth investigation, often after a fatal incident.
* For working miners, MSHA is a resource to make potentially hazardous workplaces safer, and can protect miners who have been fired or punished for bringing up a safety issue to management.
* MSHA differs from OSHA because MSHA has a legal requirement to fully inspect underground mines 4 times per year, surface mines and quarries twice per year, and seasonal operations once per year while in operation. OSHA has no such requirement, and often goes for years without inspections of worksites, unless a fatality occurs.