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Editor, News-Register:
(Editor's note: the bill in question, House Bill 4840, sponsored by Delegate Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, did not advance before crossover day).
In one of the more brazen acts of political disgrace, West Virginia Republicans are seeking to take the teeth out of laws that protect coal miners.
Coal mining remains a dangerous job which few of us could or would perform. The profession has been made safer over the years, but only as one mine calamity after another has occurred which has taken the lives of miners.
A key facet in making the job less dangerous has come through the enactment of regulations which serve to hold mine operators accountable when they place profit over the lives of those who perform this grueling work.
Just as Republicans seek to strip us of civil, voting, labor, LGBTQ, and abortion rights, so too do they now plot to bend to coal mine operators over those who have enabled them to prosper.
West Virginia is known as the coal mining capital of the United States.
The least those who go underground have the right to expect is that there will be reasonable protections for them and that when operators do not provide it, that they will be held responsible.
I recently attended an event at which a labor-friendly Pennsylvania State House member spoke. She said that Republicans only care about the working man and woman at election time. Those who seek to make mining more dangerous so that they can coddle those who profit mightily from it have helped to prove her point.
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township, Pa