13 Apr President Biden Picks Former UMWA Attorney as Top OSHA Post
The White House said on April 9 that President Biden had picked Doug Parker, chief of California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) since 2019, to be assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. (OSHA).
During the Obama administration, Parker was deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Dept. of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration. Earlier, he was a senior policy advisor and special assistant at the Department of Labor (DOL).
An attorney, Parker began his legal career as a staff attorney with the United Mine Workers of America. He later was a staffer for the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).
In February, President Biden nominated Julie Su, Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, to be DOL’s deputy secretary.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised Parker, saying that he “has dedicated his life to advancing the cause of worker safety, because he understands this is a life-and-death struggle for working people in every industry and in every corner of the country.”
President Trumka also called on OSHA to issue a national emergency temporary workplace-safety standard for COVID-19.