Spokane mining safety lab loses staff as part of 10,000 federal health job cuts: 'I don't believe the administration understands the work being done at these sites'
Apr. 1—The wave of federal firings by the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday included workers at a specialized laboratory in Spokane that studies mining and wildland firefighting safety.
The department notified the Spokane Research Laboratory's union Monday that approximately 200 employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health facilities in Pittsburgh and Spokane would be affected. That includes perhaps 90 employees locally.
American Federation of Government Employees Local #1916 Director Lilas Soukup, who is based in Pittsburgh but also represents the lab in Spokane, said HHS fired managers Tuesday and plans to eliminate the union-represented employees effective June 30.
Soukup said about 45 union members in Spokane are part of about 90 workers that include contract workers. The firing of management leaves union employees without supervision or direction, a safety and security concern, Soukup said .
Workers don't have any guidance on whether they are supposed to continue research or work towards closing the facility.
"This was a very haphazard approach," Soukup said. "I don't believe the administration understands the work being done at these sites."
Tucked behind a BMW dealership in the Logan neighborhood in North Spokane, the Spokane Research Laboratory holds two departments: the Spokane Mining Research Division studies health and safety for miners, and the Western Sates Division, which is smaller, studies safety for other industries — including wildland firefighting, fisheries, logging, and oil and gas drilling.
The Pittsburgh Mining Research Division focuses more on coal mining, whereas Spokane's lab focuses on hard rock mining.
Soukup said the research is mandated by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and should require congressional action to abolish.
Sen. Patty Murray said in a news release the future of the office is unclear and that the Trump administration refused to answer her questions about it.
"The Trump administration's mass firings of people researching how to better protect American workers' safety on the job is a disaster waiting to happen," Murray said in a statement. "Those firings included nearly all of the researchers at the Spokane NIOSH Research Laboratory, who are doing critical and time-sensitive work studying how to protect workers' health and safety on the job in dangerous fields like mining, firefighting, and the maritime industry."
The firings are among 10,000 reported across HHS, including the closing of the Region 10 office in Seattle, which serves Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. NIOSH is organized under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is under HHS.
Around 873 staff are expected to be cut from NIOSH, CBS News reported. An HHS fact sheet released last week said NIOSH would be consolidated into the new "Administration for a Healthy America" for better efficiency.
Several probationary employees were fired from Spokane Research Laboratory as part of DOGE layoffs in February, including Jessica Perkins, a former program specialist. Perkins said the lab's work is critical to keeping American workers safe as the Trump administration calls for more domestic mining to decrease foreign reliance on critical minerals.
Art Miller, a longtime researcher at the facility who retired three years ago, had continued as a contracted consultant until February when he was suddenly locked out of his email.
"I just thought it was unprecedented and weird," Miller said.
Miller is an expert in mine air quality and airborne toxins who began his career working for the U.S. Bureau of Mines until the agency closed in 1996 and transferred its health research to NIOSH. That's when he moved to Spokane.
When the Bureau closed, workers were upset, Miller said, but the process was handled differently. There were open discussions and progress updates months before, and Congress held votes about it.
Today, best practices and technology developed through NIOSH's research are used in mines around the world. No one else does this kind of research, Miller said.
"Every worker in the country deserves to go home safe," Miller said.
He worries the last 10 years of his work will be wasted. He was helping a small private company develop a portable device that can detect airborne silica — which is toxic if inhaled. The device could also be used by the construction industry where workers are often exposed, but without government grant funding the company probably won't be able to finish the project.
James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
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