Solis: ‘No miner should ever have to die for a paycheck’

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis promised Monday to investigate a roof collapse at an Idaho mine that killed a miner this month.

Rescuers searched for the miner, Larry Marek, for more than a week after the April 15 roof collapse. They discovered his body on Sunday.

“I can assure you that the Mine Safety and Health Administration, headed by Joseph Main, will conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the roof collapse,” Solis said in a statement Monday. “Larry’s family deserves to have answers, and we will continue our efforts to insist on safety and protection of all workers. No miner should ever have to die for a paycheck.”

Here’s more on Marek from The Associated Press.

Marek’s death comes as Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration is implementing a series of beefed-up safety standards imposed in the aftermath of last year’s Upper Big Branch mining disaster in West Virginia, which killed 29 men.