Coal Miners Were Poised to Win Key Safety Protections. Then Trump Showed Up.
James Bounds has been working in the mines since 1969. Now 78, and living in Fayette County, West Virginia, he was first diagnosed with black lung in 1984. He was told to quit working at the mines, but he didn’t. He continued working until 2003, when he was permanently disabled with black lung. “I had so many obligations at that time that I couldn’t quit the mines,” he said.