New OSHA Administrator Talks Tough

摘要

David Michaels, the new administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), is turning up the heat on industry, and critics of the agency under George W. Bush are pointing the Obama administrator toward the pipeline and underground construction industries. Peg Seminario, director safety and health, AFL-CIO, and one of the Capital's top OSHA critics, told a Senate committee in April that Congress should pass new legislation allowing OSHA to levy higher civil fines and criminal penalties and used a January 2009 trench cave-in in Frey-burg, OH, and a July 2009 pipeline fatality case in Batesville,TX, as examples of why higher penalties are needed.