Latest news with #Tinney-Zara
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NIOSH division in charge of screening for miner lung diseases restored
MORGANTOWN, (WBOY) — Several jobs at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown have been officially restored following certification earlier this week that Reductions in Force (RIF) at the institution would not happen. So what's next? On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent out a court document certifying that the RIFs have been rescinded, a move that fully restores the Respiratory Health Division (RHD). This move is in compliance with a court injunction ordered in mid-May as part of a larger case against the cuts. The plaintiff's original suit sought the restoration of RHD, saying that RHD facilitates federally mandated coal miner lung screening programs and job transfer rights. The plaintiff's legal counsel, Samuel Petsonk, told 12 News that even despite this restoration, he is still concerned that NIOSH still doesn't have the ability to perform all of its federally mandated services as well as it did before the RIFs. He added that his office and client are weighing their options. Elderly and disabled residents trapped without functioning elevator in Clarksburg apartment building The rescinded RIFs for RHD accounted for 51 RHD employees, while hundreds of other NIOSH employees were originally impacted. The President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3430 Cathy Tinney-Zara, which represents the Morgantown NIOSH office, told 12 News that they were pleased with this rescinding of the RIFs, but that there are components of NIOSH still missing, such as the Health Effects Laboratory Division, which does research focused on evaluating, controlling, and preventing workplace safety and health hazards. Tinney-Zara added that AFGE is waiting for the Supreme Court decision on the broader legality of the federal downsizing. In the statement to 12 News, she said: 'While we await the court's decision, we are ready to return to work and continue our mission of protecting the health and safety of America's workers. We firmly believe that the value we provide to the government, to workers, and to their families will be recognized.' Tinney-Zara added that NIOSH's efforts 'significantly' reduce financial burdens on the federal government by lowering Social Security payments, workers' compensation claims and healthcare expenses. She said that 'by keeping the workforce safer and healthier, we not only save money but also safeguard lives.' You can read the full document certifying the restoration of RHD below. show_multidocsDownload Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Some NIOSH personnel returning temporarily
Apr. 29—MORGANTOWN — A number of furloughed scientists and researchers from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health are set to trod some familiar turf this morning. They're going back to work—at least temporarily. The scientists and researchers are part of the agency's coal miner and firefighter safety divisions, Cathy Tinney-Zara said. Tinney-Zara is a NIOSH public health analyst and president of Local 3430 of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing the bulk of the targeted researchers and other employees. While she doesn't know the exact number of people ordered in the call-up, any NIOSH worker on the job, she said, is good for American workers, in general. "It's encouraging because we'll be able to complete some of our data, " she said, referencing the several safety studies that were ongoing when the layoffs were announced April 1. Not counting support workers, the cutbacks ordered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources is directly affecting 185 workers here — with 10, 000 other scientists in total being idled at other NIOSH facilities in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Spokane, Wash. "Our hope is that this is a movement in the right direction, " Tinney-Zara said. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who broke the news Tuesday morning in a social media post, agreed, saying what is now temporary should be made a permanent reinstatement. "I am encouraged that some NIOSH functions for coal miner and firefighter safety are slated to resume with some staff returning to work this week, " she said, "but my understanding is that this is temporary." Capito earlier wrote a letter earlier to Health and Human Resources Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling on him to rescind the cuts. She said Tuesday she will continue to press HHS and its leader for the same. Tinney-Zara said she appreciates the senator's efforts. NIOSH needs to be at a fixed spot in government, she said, since it watches out for those who toil underground in coal mines and on the shop floors—where an accident at both can mean serious injury or death.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Some NIOSH workers return temporarily amid cuts impacting coal miner health screenings in WV
Some employees of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, pictured here on Jan. 28, 2012 in Morgantown, will return temporarily, according to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. (Getty Images) At least some workers at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health are getting back to work this week after federal cuts in early April took them off the job, according to a statement released Tuesday by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Those returning to work include some employees from the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program and the Fire Fighters' Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program. The total number of individuals who were granted reemployment has not been released. And those who are returning to work will, at this time, only be doing so temporarily. A Reduction In Force for the 'vital' federal agency is still slated to go into effect in June and will impact these workers, according to a statement from the local chapter of the American Federation of Governmental Employees, a labor union representing the employees. Cathy Tinney-Zara, president of AFGE Local 3430 in Morgantown, said in a news release that the union is 'encouraged' by the decision to call crucial workers back to work. 'This action, though temporary, allows these dedicated professionals to return to their critical roles in advancing worker safety and health across the country,' Tinney-Zara said. 'Their return means renewed momentum for life-saving research, outreach and interventions that protect workers in high-risk industries and help prevent illness, injury, and death on the job.' Notably, Tinney-Zara continued, it seems only workers in the CWHSP and the FFFIPP — programs that are 'currently in the media spotlight' — were included in the calls to return to work. That leaves numerous other programs and initiatives undertaken by NIOSH still inoperable after cuts from the new federal Department of Government Efficiency hit the agency in early April. 'These are undoubtedly vital initiatives, but they are only a portion of the comprehensive, nationwide worker protection mission NIOSH fulfills,' Tinney-Zara said. 'From construction sites to health care facilities, from transportation hubs to agricultural fields, NIOSH's work touches nearly every corner of the American labor force.' The directive offering some people their jobs back came after Capito, earlier this month, wrote a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging him to reconsider the cuts that cost at least 200 people their jobs — and, in turn, ended the programs they worked for — in the Morgantown NIOSH facility. On Tuesday, Capito said in a statement that she was 'encouraged that some NIOSH functions for coal miner and firefighter safety are slated to resume with some select staff returning to work this week.' 'But my understanding is that this is temporary so my focus will continue to be on working with [the federal Department of Health and Human Services] on permanently restoring these functions and personnel in the most efficient and effective manner,' Capito continued. In her letter to Kennedy on April 21, Capito emphasized how critical Morgantown's NIOSH facility and the workers within it were to combatting deadly black lung disease and protecting miners who are now being pushed, through initiatives by the Trump Administration, to mine more coal than any time in recent memory. 'The NIOSH Mining Program works to eliminate mining fatalities and injuries. Research in rock dust has resulted in safety changes to prevent explosions in underground mines …' Capito wrote. 'NIOSH's [CWHSP] studies respiratory disease and provides black lung screenings to coal miners. It is my understanding that the RIF impacted every employee in these important programs.' With work by the CWHSP halted since April 1, coal miners in central Appalachia have been without access to critical health services and surveillance, including free screenings for black lung and a program that allows them, once diagnosed with black lung, to request relocating to a different, less dusty portion of a mine in order to mitigate the worst developments of the deadly disease. Anyone requesting to relocate in a mine — a labor right afforded to miners through the Part 90 program — must have their black lung testing results evaluated and marked eligible by a NIOSH worker in order to be approved. But with DOGE's cuts, those workers didn't exist anymore. The reduction in services for coal miners comes as a surge of black lung disease is hitting the workforce. It also hits as implementation of a federal rule that would limit miners' exposure to dangerous silica dust for the first time ever has been delayed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 20% of coal miners in central Appalachia are suffering from black lung — the highest rate detected in more than 25 years. One in 20 of the region's coal miners are living with the most severe form of the condition. And the resurgence of black lung is hitting coal miners at younger ages than ever before. This is due to miners, because of a lack of easily accessible coal, being forced to dig through more silica-rich sandstone than their predecessors in order to reach what little coal remains. When the silica dust rule was slated to go into effect this month, the former secretary for the federal Department of Labor estimated that it could potentially save thousands of lives. Now, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration — the agency that would be in charge of enacting and enforcing the silica rule — is being temporarily headed by an attorney who worked with industry groups that lobbied against implementation of exposure limits for silica, which advocates and coal mining veterans have colored as being life saving if ever implemented. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
West Virginia union leaders decry cuts to federal workforce
Anita Wolfe, a retiree of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) facility in Morgantown, speaks against the federal employee job cuts occurring in the state during a news conference held by West Virginia labor representatives outside the House of Delegates chamber in the state Capitol in Charleston, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Sean McCallister | Charleston Gazette-Mail photo) On the heels of a federal office in Morgantown firing dozens of employees, union representatives of West Virginia's federal workforce call on the state's elected leaders to speak out against what they say are 'reckless cuts.' 'We need congress to ask our president to stop the reckless cuts and take a measured approach to reforming government and balancing the budget such as was done in the 1990s,' said Dan Doyle, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1995. 'The current actions are chaotic, disruptive, counterproductive and frankly wasteful.' Doyle's comments came during a press conference Thursday outside the House of Delegates chamber at the West Virginia State Capitol. Since January, hundreds of thousands of federal employees have lost their jobs as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk carry out their plan to downsize the government through the Department of Government Efficiency. About 23,000 employees work at 20 federal facilities in West Virginia and 33,000 federal workers live in the state, Doyle said. The total number of West Virginia federal workers who have been laid off is difficult to say, because many are under orders not to talk about it. Doyle said West Virginians will also be affected by potential cuts to federal programs and services like Social Security and the Mine Health and Safety Administration. 'Instead of letting cuts be made by powerful interests to enrich the hands of a few, we came here today to ask our elected officials in Charleston and our citizens in our state, speak up together with us for the good of the families, for working people and for West Virginia,' Doyle said. About 400 workers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health facility in Morgantown have lost their jobs, Cathy Tinney-Zara, president of AFGE Local 3040 said. Tinney-Zara had initially said the number was around 200. The new estimate includes 185 bargaining unit employees, nonbargaining unit employees, management, contractors and others, she said. 'We have millions of dollars of research that is just sitting there, I guess, to be destroyed,' she said Thursday. Tinney-Zara and other workers there are terminated as of June 7. At this point, the office is expected to close completely, she said. Altogether, a restructuring of the federal Health and Human Services will include cutting the workforce by 10,000, federal officials have said. 'I was [at NIOSH] 32 years, and people do not get into public health unless they care,' she said. 'It's devastating. People are going to die.' The Trump administration has said it plans to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Bryan Hunt, president of AFGE Local 2384, said that any cuts to staffing at the state's four Veterans Affairs Medical Centers will have a negative impact on the veterans seeking care and the communities where employees live. 'I just ask that our representatives speak that, how concerning that is,' he said. 'And know that our veterans in West Virginia are important and the VA is important. The employees are important.' Democrats in the state Legislature also called on Republican leaders to stand up for West Virginia workers as DOGE and the Trump administration's tariffs potentially lead to more job loss. Del. John Williams, D-Monongalia, said since January, the state's north central region has lost about 1,000 jobs. Those include cuts at NIOSH and around 200 jobs that will leave Fairmont when the Novelis facility closes after 100 years in the community. The Legislature's Republican supermajority have done nothing to mitigate those job losses, Williams said. 'No one is sticking up for West Virginians,' he said. 'No one that they elected is sticking up for them. We can talk about it until we're blue in the face every single day, but until Republicans start working for the people that elected them and stop trying to win MAGA member of the month, none of this is going to change.' Asked about recent job cuts for West Virginia workers during a press conference Thursday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the state should do everything it can to drive job development and pointed to some initiatives the Legislature is considering, including universal licensing reciprocity, a bill to speed up permitting processes for businesses looking to locate in the state, and legislation meant to incentivize the creation of microgrids and data centers in the state. 'No one wants to lose a job and certainly my heart goes out to everyone. We're going to work and fight so that there's so many jobs in West Virginia that we're going to really succeed as a state,' Morrisey said. 'I know that there have been a number of stories [about job losses] recently, but I'm optimistic the long-term arc, if we do what we need to do here, is going to work out well for the people of our state.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
More than 200 jobs eliminated during DOGE cuts at Morgantown's NIOSH facility
The NIOSH Coal Worker's Health Surveillance Program offers periodic black lung screenings at no cost to coal miners in the U.S. On Tuesday, it was announced that more than 200 people at NIOSH would be losing their jobs because of DOGE cuts. (NIOSH | Courtesy photo) Approximately 200 federal jobs are being eliminated at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health facility in Morgantown, an official of a union representing workers there said Tuesday. Hundreds of the facility's lab animals are expected to be euthanized. Cathy Tinney-Zara, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3040, said she'd received word that all 185 bargaining unit employees will be part of a reduction in force. In addition, management officials at the office have been put on administrative leave and will be part of the reduction in force, she said. She estimates that altogether, 210 staff positions have been eliminated. 'It's devastating. People will die,' Tinney-Zara said of the effects of the cuts. Officials at the facility were told the cuts were because the services there were not needed or were duplicative, she said. 'There is no one else in the government that does occupational safety and health,' she said. 'There's no one else in the U.S. We're the only group, NIOSH, that does occupational safety and health. We do the research to make everyone's job safer.' According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, which oversees NIOSH, will decrease its workforce by 2,400, in accordance with President Donald Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Workforce Optimization Initiative.' Overall, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will reduce staffing from 82,000 to 62,000 and consolidate 28 divisions into 15. Staffing cuts are expected to save $1.8 billion per year. The changes will improve Americans' experience with the agency by making it more responsive and efficient, while ensuring that Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential health services remain intact, the organization said in a statement. 'Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,' Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in the statement. 'This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That's the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.' The Morgantown facility had 674 mice and 37 rats for use in studies that will likely be destroyed, Tinney-Zara said. Law requires the facility to have a veterinarian when working with the animals. The veterinarian was let go, she said. Some of the studies have been going on for decades, but are being ended. 'All of our animals, it appears, will have to be euthanized,' Tinney-Zara said. 'And to make matters worse, there was a shipment of animals that came in today that the CDC DOGE person approved the purchase of these animals. They just came into the facility. They're going to have to be euthanized.' Tinney-Zara spoke with West Virginia Watch Tuesday afternoon as she cleaned out her office of more than 30 years. She said she received notice around 5 a.m. Tuesday that she was being fired and that she'd lose access to the facility by midnight. 'Everyone's running around here with tears in their eyes and yeah, it's just been an insane day,' she said. An original notice last week listed administrative roles that were to be affected. 'Then, all of a sudden it was our whole entire facility,' she said. Tinney-Zara said the Morgantown cuts will have a far-reaching effect on the economy in the city and the rest of the state. 'Let's see, take approximately 210 people that many of them have Ph.D.s and are scientists, and have years of experience and new researchers coming on board and take them out of the market, take all of their tax dollars, and it will have a drastic economic impact,' she said. 'And that can be both local and statewide.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
