The Department of Labor is committed to expanding job quality and creating equitable pathways to safe, stable, good-paying jobs that allow workers the right to organize.

One of the Secretary of Labor's goals for the U. S. workforce is to build a modern, inclusive workforce.

As outlined

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in the Department's FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, strategic goal 2 is to “Ensure Safe Jobs, Essential Protections, and Fair Workplaces.” MSHA’s role in accomplishing this objective is to “prevent fatalities, disease, and injury from mining, and secure safe and healthful working conditions for America’s miners.” The Secretary of Labor, through MSHA, may award grants to state, tribal, and territorial governments (including the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) to assist them in developing and enforcing state mining laws and regulations, improve state workers’ compensation and mining occupational disease laws and programs, and improve safety and health conditions in the nation’s mines through Federal-State coordination and cooperation.

MSHA recognizes that state training programs are a key source of mine safety and health training and education for individuals who work or will work at mines.

MSHA encourages state training programs to prioritize health and safety training for small mining operations and underserved mines and miners within the mining industry, and to prioritize diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

MSHA is also interested in supporting programs that emphasize training on miners’ statutory rights, including the right to be provided a safe and healthy working environment, to refuse an unsafe task, and to have a voice in the safety and health conditions at the mine.

The Agency encourages grantees to address, in their training and education programs, occupational health hazards cause by exposures to respirable dust and crystalline silica, powered haulage and mobile equipment safety, mine emergency preparedness, mine rescue, electrical safety, contract and customer truck drivers, improving training for new and inexperienced miners, managers and supervisors performing mining tasks, pillar safety for underground mines, and falls from heights.