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April 1, 2025 - So far, more than 121,000 workers have been fired from federal agencies since the start of President Trump's second term. It's an effort to cut spending through the Department of Government Efficiency.
If you're not a government employee, you might wonder why this matters. KDKA-TV's Megan Shinn spoke with one local worker who's saved hundreds of lives with his government work in western Pennsylvania.
Chris Mark has knowledge and experience in the mining industry that digs deeper than the coal mine itself. Now about 40 years into serving as a government employee, in his own words, he's adding a face to the western Pennsylvania federal employee.
"I'm a mine safety specialist for the federal government," Mark said. "But today, I'm speaking in my personal capacity."
While working inside the mines, early in his career, he said he almost died twice.
"When I finished my doctorate in 1987, I came to work for the U.S Bureau of Mines here in Pittsburgh, in the South Hills," he said.
The department name may have evolved over time, and his role's ability to enforce safety expanded, but his focus on mine safety remained after he learned how dangerous it was.
"Explosions were just one thing; roof falls were killing a hundred miners a year and your chances of being killed as a miner in a roof fall hadn't really changed in 30 years. I mean, there hadn't been any improvement," Mark said.
His life's work focused on one question: how do you prevent mine-related deaths?
"In the course of my work, I've visited hundreds of mines and spoke to the people at those mines," he said.
Very simply put, through his government job, he created the industry standard to assess the chances of a mine collapse and what's needed to prevent it.
"Perhaps my greatest contribution was to develop a different way of looking at these problems," Mark said.
His findings and expertise led to the first year ever without any deaths in a mine related to a roof collapsing.
"We brought that all the way down to zero, in 2016, and in a couple years since then," he said.
He's humble when he describes his accomplishments. He's the son of a Princeton University professor who turned away attending that university to pursue a career full of coal dust. However, his calculations and programs for mine safety are currently used nationwide.
"I put in a lot of other theory, and statistics, and so what I've come up with are some really very simple guidelines," Mark said.
He said many other employees play a big part in mine safety, but there's no denying his experience cultivated leaps of growth in mine safety throughout America.
Without his work, Mark said history shows mining companies cut corners on safety to save money.
"It's the miners themselves who are paying the cost of these things. It's not actually the mine operators, though they lose money when there's a mine collapse," Mark said.
He used the example from just about fifteen years ago from Boone County, West Virginia, where there was a terrible mine explosion that killed 29 people. He said in the court transcript, it details a large mine operator who had a corporate policy to keep the mine inspectors at bay and limit what's spent on safety.
"At this particular mine, the Upper Big Branch mine, they would ask to be able to hire people to put down the rock dust that prevents the possibility of a large explosion, and the CEO refused to give them authority to do that because it would cost money," said Mark.
He explained that having the federal government employees able to enforce safety makes a difference.
"As the government, we can come in and say, 'This is the floor of safety that everybody has to meet.' You can compete on anything else, but you can't compete on this," Mark explained.
Now he's concerned about a future without federal workers.
"The kind of expertise that I bring to mine safety, for instance, is not something you can just hire off the street," he said.
He said there's additional concern that further firings of new hires and probationary employees could create gaps in mentorship, without the next generation to learn from employees with more years. Mark even addressed Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency's cutting of federal programs.
"If you think the purpose of the federal government is to be efficient, you're really missing the point," he said.
"When a company in the private sector does that, and it's a mistake, that company pays the price for it. But if you do that with the federal government, it's the public that pays the price for your mistake," he added.
He's not mining for attention, but he's building insight, so you know the value of your neighborhood federal worker.
"If we were doing things that you could make money doing, somebody would be doing it in the private sector already. We're here to prevent disasters," said Mark.
Mark is the first person interviewed in a longer series of articles and new book by author Michael Lewis. Mark said he is not benefiting in any way from this book. |
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