Thomas K. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Ohio–

You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Black lung is what you get.

In the Spring of 2025, a slew of Trump regime budget cuts to National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) protections for coal miners were on the chopping block. Through organization and use of the courts coal miners and their families were able to stop this attack on their healthcare benefits. Sadly it appears the Trump regime has every intention of doubling down on their efforts to sacrifice the working class for the sake of corporate profits.

As coal burning powerhouses are brought out of retirement across the country, miners are having to dig deeper and deeper to keep up with the demands. The change in depth has led to a dramatic rise of black lung cases.

Miners as young as 45 have been reported to need double lung transplants due to damage caused by silica inhalation. Lisa Emery, director of the New River Health Association Black Lung Clinic, stated her concerns in a recent interview: “These families, you know, they’re my families… It’s miners whose kids go to school with my kids.”

Through another series of executive orders, Trump continues his push to revive coal burner power plants across the country, this is deemed “necessary” of course due to the rampant push for data centers. To further aid heavy polluting coal plants, the regime has offered two-year exemptions on requirements to reduce toxic pollutants such as mercury and arsenic.

If the environmental attacks weren’t enough, the brown-nosing Labor Department has decided to propose some changes to regulations that would take away more authority from district Mine Safety and Health (MSHA) officials. These changes are attached to venting, and roof collapse prevention training. Coupling this with the fact that Health and Safety researchers attached to OSHA and MSHA are still out of work due to budget cuts leaves not only mine workers but all workers without protections. 

When funding of safety programs is reduced it is not in favor of the worker. To only look at these attacks as “dying screams from a dying industry” would be completely foolish of us. Sadly the elements that miners have been exposed to have led to the policy changes that affect industries like commercial fishing and construction.

Silica dust has become the new asbestos. It seems every year research comes out showing the damning numbers. The inhalation of silica dust essentially calcifies the inside of the lungs over time. Making it impossible for the lungs to expand in contract under their own power requiring constant attachment to an oxygen tank. Silica dust is impossible to avoid in these industries and it must be controlled, and in order for that control to be effective it requires research, study and engineering efforts to protect workers.

This is not “the dying screams from a dying industry” — these are just reports back from front line fighters. They have every intention of pushing these regulation changes across the board and as we have seen since Trump’s election our reformative measures stand no chance of defending us. 

“In its struggle for power the proletariat [i.e. the workers] has no other weapon but organization.”

V. I. Lenin, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.”

We need rampant unionization across the country, but we cannot forget the purpose and intent of these unions. Unions provide us with more money in our pockets, and better benefits come retirement, but more importantly they provide us a means to begin our fight. They provide us a roof under which we can protect ourselves from the acidic rain of capitalism. Unions arm us with the most important weapon we possess: the unity of the masses. 

Categories: Labor, U.S. News