Dating back to his first days in state office, Senator Rockefeller has stood alongside West Virginia workers and their families. He is a longtime supporter of the rights of employees to negotiate for better wages, safer working conditions, and a brighter future for their families. He has also taken a stand on policies that benefit working Americans, such as enforcing U.S. trade laws, securing health benefits for our employees, and keeping people safe on the job.
Senator Rockefeller has long believed that West Virginia's workers can compete with anyone in the world when it's a fair fight, and our workers have proven him right, time and again. As a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, he successfully fought against the flood of unfair imports from foreign countries, fought to strengthen and enforce U.S. trade laws, and opposed trade agreements that outsourced jobs and were bad for West Virginia’s economy.
Over the years, Senator Rockefeller has worked tirelessly to attract new investors for steel companies. Today, joint ventures like Wheeling-Nisshin Steel, a state-of-the-art facility in the state's Northern Panhandle, continue to produce steel. Senator Rockefeller also advocated for the Emergency Steel Loan Guaranty Program (ESLG), which provides government guarantees for loans to companies that were harmed by unfair and illegal trade practices.
But for Senator Rockefeller, it's not just about trade laws and investments - it's also about the people who make our steel, mine our coal and build our roads. He's worked to protect retirees from reduced benefits or pensions. He’s aggressively pursued legislation to assist Americans whose jobs were shipped overseas - also known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA. Senator Rockefeller fought to expand TAA to include a better tax credit to help the unemployed obtain health insurance, in addition to the income support, job training and relocation assistance already offered.
He has also championed safer working conditions for workers in every industry. In the wake of the Sago and Alma mine tragedies, Senator Rockefeller helped pass the MINER Act that made some of the most sweeping changes to mine safety in a generation. Following the disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine and other workplace tragedies around the country, he introduced the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act to improve safety and protect whistleblowers. Additionally, Senator Rockefeller successfully authored the law that now requires mine companies to disclose safety violations to the public and their shareholders.