Starting with a 30-minute mantrip ride to deep under the ground, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta got a close-up look at a West Virginia coal mine recently – an experience Acosta said gave him an appreciation for the men and women who work in the nation’s 13,000 mines.

Today is National Miner’s Day, officially proclaimed as such by Congress in 2009. The designation is intended to focus attention on mine workers, who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Miners put their lives at risk each and every day as they contend with health and safety issues as well as their uncertainty of the future.