"The federal agency largely failed people on farms, in restaurants, and in meat-processing facilities during the pandemic. Labor leaders hope Cal/OSHA’s Doug Parker will steer the ship right."
"Throughout the pandemic, thousands of people working in fields, processing plants, and grocery stores have contracted COVID-19 on the job, and hundreds have died. Many reported shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other dangerous conditions to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency tasked with protecting them at work. Under the Trump administration, OSHA was slow to respond and conducted very few inspections in response to those complaints. When it did begin fining companies for failing to meet guidelines, the penalties were paltry.
Now, advocates for worker rights are hopeful as President Biden has named a new leader for the agency, Doug Parker, the former head of California’s state-level OSHA.
Cal/OSHA is known for having stronger standards than OSHA. And for food workers, Parker’s track record in California not only provides insights into how he might run OSHA, but it means he’ll bring with him the experience of managing worker protections in the country’s largest agricultural state."
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