Jordan Barab Named Acting OSHA Chief

by James Parks, Apr 8, 2009

Health and safety activist Jordan Barab was appointed today as the acting head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Barab, a senior policy adviser for the House Education and Labor Committee, is well-known as a strong advocate for health and safety in the workplace.

Barab will lead the agency until a permanent director is chosen and then will become OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary on a permanent basis.

Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO’s director for safety and health, says Barab is an “excellent choice” for OSHA deputy assistant secretary. 

He has decades of experience in safety and health working in the labor movement, at OSHA and in the House of Representatives on a broad range of issues. He has a deep commitment and dedication to protecting workers and will bring to OSHA the kind of energy and leadership that is sorely needed to move the agency in a new direction.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, says Barab “will bring a tremendous amount of valuable health and safety experience to an agency that has been neglected for far too long.”

Throughout his career, Jordan has demonstrated the specialized knowledge of health and safety issues needed to revamp the agency and strengthen its efforts to protect Americans while on the job.

Barab joined the House Education and Labor Committee staff in February 2007 as senior labor policy adviser after four years at the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. He served as special assistant to the assistant director of labor for OSHA from 1998 to 2001. He was a consultant to the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department from 2001 to 2002, and directed the safety and health program for AFSCME from 1982 to 1998. 

From 2003 to 2007, Barab wrote an award-winning blog about workplace health and safety called Confined Space.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (3)