Marshall and other USW activists got to work, advocating for themselves and their coworkers and calling on the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, to lower the limit.

And that opened some doors for me to go testify on behalf of all miners at a hearing in Denver for a new standard that was a proposed rule.

When I went to testify at that, uh, hearing, it was pretty, pretty sad and disheartening and honestly disgusting to see how many companies were saying that it's too expensive to protect their workersI spoke, uh, gave my 2 cents and just told them, "Listen, it might not be today or tomorrow, but if I keep getting exposed to this, there's a chance that I won't be able to play catch with my kids or my grandkids."

In April 2024, the testimony and campaign paid off.

Through the international and the last, uh, head of MSHA, Chris Williamson, and a lot of folks working on that, they got the rule pushed through.

So I was able to go speak at a press conference where we presented, uh, this rule in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and the company said they needed a little bit of time to implement this.

What that really meant was, "We need a little more time till the administration changes, the head of MSHA leaves, and we can fight this in court to make sure that we don't have to keep our workers safe."