The number of federally-approved OSHA Voluntary Protection Program sites has declined in the past two years, after peaking at 1,720 in 2010. As of December 31, 2012, 1,633 sites were enrolled in the VPP. At the end 0f 2011, the number stood at 1,688 sites, according to data posted on OSHA’s web site.
In the spring of 2010, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who announced her resignation January 9th, 2013, put her name on the Department of Labor’s Regulatory Agenda Narrative, where she endorsed a strategy of “Plan/Prevent/Protect.”
It’s official: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has announced in a letter to colleagues dated January 9th that she is leaving her cabinet seat to “begin a new future” back in her home state of California. She submitted her resignation to President Obama on the 9th.
Now I understand why so little hiring is going on in U.S. industry. Human resources departments are vanishing, according to The New York Times (December 2, 2012), so there is no one to do it.
At least 1.7 million U.S. workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in industries and occupations including construction, sandblasting, and mining, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heading into 2013, I am asking ISHN readers (there are 71,000 of you out there across the U.S.) for input on issues of leadership and organizational culture.
Call it the OSHA relevancy scale. After the election, and staring at another four-year cycle at OSHA, we posed this question to several in-the-know sources: In terms of its various activities and their impact on safety pros, how influencial and relevant is OSHA after 40+ years of existence?
Mere days after the presidential election, the honeymoon is still on for the winners. That includes agencies such as OSHA, MSHA and EPA, whose top leaders were political appointments made after Obama’s 2008 win.
