December 20, 2018
Citizens from six states traveled to Washington D.C. in late November 2018, to urge their legislators to uphold the fees supporting the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, and to pass the Reclaim Act. One in 5 miners in our region have Black Lung, and that rate has doubled in the past decade. And yet, as rates of the disease rapidly increase, the Trust Fund that provides benefits and health care is under threat. This Mountain Talk episode features the DC press conference with miners and their families, as well as an interview with retired east Kentucky miner Kenny Fleming and organizer Eric Dixon from Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center.