Former Amazon Safety Executive Nominated to lead OSHA
Amazon faced numerous citations from the agency under Keeling’s tenure
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated David Keeling, the former safety executive from UPS and Amazon to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. During Keeling’s tenure at Amazon, the company was cited numerous times for “serious violations of Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSH Act”) for AMAZON’s failure to furnish a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees,” according to the Department of Justice. In response, Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:
“Unfortunately, being associated with corporations cited for frequent violations does not make Keeling qualified to run OSHA. Keeling’s work history with Amazon and UPS was marked by frequent citations for workplace safety and health violations. Amazon, for example, has incurred 51 OSHA penalties of more than $5K each since 2014, totaling $892,000.
“Also unfortunately, this is exactly what we now expect from the Trump administration: Appoint conflicted, industry-connected insiders to oversee the industries from which they came, so they can gut agencies, undermine health and safety protections and enable corporations to run wild.
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