While critics on both the right and left have taken on the Obama administration for purportedly wobbling on issues ranging from financial regulation to Afghanistan, worker safety seems one area that the new team in Washington has charted a definite course correction from the past eight years.
Late last year, the Senate quickly confirmed David Michaels as the new director of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Labor advocates cheered. Some business leaders -- who fear a costly new era of regulation is upon them -- jeered.
Peg Seminario, director of safety and health for the AFL-CIO in Washington, says the Michaels appointment represents an important step forward after eight years of what she terms 'neglect, inaction and, in some cases, hostility.'"
