As America mourns the deaths of 25 miners at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia one thing is obvious: penalties for violating mine safety rules aren’t strong enough.

Last year the Upper Big Branch mine had 458 safety violations resulting in more than $897,325 in penalties of which $168,393 has been paid. Just last month the mine had 57 violations including not properly ventilating combustible methane gas.

The penalties for those violations obviously aren’t big enough. We need to increase the fines and penalties for safety violations so that companies like Massey simply can’t afford to break the rules.

It’s the only way to get them to do the right thing and follow safety laws.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis -- who oversees the Mine Safety & Health Administration -- has pledged that the miners' deaths in this tragedy “will not be in vain.” Send Secretary Holis a letter today asking her to make fines for safety violations strong enough to truly protect mineworkers.