Amazon, UPS Safety Maven Faces OSHA Staffing, Policy Pressures

President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the country’s workplace safety watchdog, David Keeling, started his career at the United Parcel Service Inc. as a package handler.

That experience, he wrote in a 2021 op-ed, informed the next four decades of his work as a health and safety specialist for UPS.

“I soon learned from experience the importance of safety and wellness,” Keeling wrote. “I quickly understood how adequate sleep and hydration can positively affect your day.”

The White House officially sent Keeling’s nomination to the US Senate on Wednesday. Bloomberg Law reported the selection Tuesday. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the nominee.

Keeling was director of road and transportation safety at Amazon.com Inc. for nearly two years from 2021 to 2023, after serving in numerous safety positions at UPS since 1985, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Both companies have had numerous interactions with the agency Keeling has been selected to lead.

In December, Amazon agreed to institute new ergonomic safety procedures at its facilities nationwide as part of a deal to resolve multiple OSHA violations stemming from investigations that started in 2022, when Keeling was at the company.

UPS has also recently been embroiled in a legal battle with the agency in Delaware federal court over efforts to install heat-stress monitoring devices in its trucks.

Amazon and UPS didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Keeling.

Staffing Woes

Trump’s pick of Keeling has largely been met with praise from the business community, and slight relief from worker safety advocates who feared a less qualified choice.

“He is an excellent choice for the position, and he does have good, solid technical credentials,” said Roger King, senior labor and employment counsel at the HR Policy Association. “He has an excellent practical grasp of what needs to be done and what should be done on work or safety issues.”

If confirmed to the position, Keeling will be tasked with balancing Trump’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce with the enforcement sub-agency’s mission to ensure workers are safe on the job.

Trump didn’t include exceptions in his federal hiring freeze for workplace safety investigators or other OSHA enforcement staff. The agency has only 1,850 inspectors on staff to inspect more than 8 million workplaces, according to its website.

How many inspectors the agency has on board and how the division is structured will be a “very important consideration” for Keeling, King added.

Policy Pressures

The former corporate safety director would also facee competing pressures to address workplace safety risks, such as rising temperatures and infectious diseases, while delivering on Trump’s regulation slashing agenda.

Under the previous administration’s leadership, OSHA had most recently been working to finalize protections for workers from high heat and was defending a rulemaking to expand who can join workplace safety inspections. Unions representing health-care workers have also been pressing the agency to issue rules to protect staff from infectious diseases.

Keeling will be under pressure to take some of these initiatives across the finish line. Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said her group wants OSHA to adopt a national heat rule.

“Now more than ever, OSHA must be a strong and proactive agency that enforces safety laws, protects all workers, and moves urgently to adopt critical new standards, including a national heat protection rule,” she said.

Despite Keeling’s background as a health and safety expert, at least one workplace safety expert is concerned about the influence Trump will have over the agency’s policy goals.

“He has a health and safety background, so I’m sure he gets the need to protect workers. However, he’s in the Trump administration, who’s following the playbook of Project 2025,” said Debbie Berkowitz, who served as a senior adviser at OSHA during the Obama administration.

“He will preside over a real effort to weaken already minimal worker safety protections,” added Berkowitz, who is now with Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

If approved by the Senate, Keeling would report to Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Labor.

Both Keeling and Chavez-DeRemer have ties back to the Teamsters union. Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination was backed by Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. The Teamsters also represent workers at UPS and Amazon, Keeling’s past employers.

“We are looking forward to working with David Keeling to ensure the safety of America’s workers,” the Teamsters said in a statement on the nominee. “It’s a positive that he has worked shifts sorting packages and knows how demanding such work can be.”