Assistant Secretary Joe Main |
IAAP members and staff, along with their colleagues from Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, met with Joe Main, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health in Erlanger, KY. Ron Gray (Kentucky Crushed Stone Association) and Pat Jacomet (Ohio Aggregates and Industrial Mineral Association) handled the logistical details for this event. Terry Browning (Vulcan Materials Co.), John Head (Continental Placer, Inc.), Annick Maenhout (Prairie Aggregates), Jim Papenhausen (RiverStone Group, Inc.), Jim Van Briessen (William Charles Construction - Materials Division) and IAAP executive director John Henriksen represented Illinois producers. Joe Main’s group included acting Metal/Non-Metal Administrator Neal Merrifield as well as Mike Davis (MSHA Southeast district manager), Ed Lopez (MSHA South Central district manager) and Steve Richetta (MSHA North central district manager).
During his comments, Joe Main highlighted a new MSHA initiative entitled “Plan, Prevent and Protect” in response to recent fatalities. In addition, Main discussed a number of important MSHA projects: reviewing current Pattern of Violation rules; analyzing existing industry injury and illness prevention programs in order to identify best practices; reviewing aggregate dams and impoundment safety; reviewing current regulation of chemical and hazardous materials and analyzing mine emergency response procedures. Finally, Main stated that MSHA, in response to industry concerns, will be:
1. improving inspector consistency by improving inspector communication with industry;
2. reducing the citation backlog by bringing back informal conferences and;
3. looking at a re-write of Part 100.
Neal Merrifield reinforced his agency’s focus on consistency and discussed plans to:
1. put compliance and policy updates on the MSHA Web site;
2. issue new Program Information Bulletins (PIB) in response to issues that arise (such as the new PIB relating to access and fall protection on excavators) and;
3. creating a new guarding manual focusing on conveyor belts. At the conclusion of Neal Merrifield’s remarks, representatives of each state made a presentation about their commitment to safety and health, as well as areas of enforcement concern. All of the State executives and operators present focused on an inspector operator relationship based on mutual respect and an emphasis on that which is truly critical to enhancing worker safety and health. To comment on this story or for additional details click on the related button above. |