Labor Chief Defends OSHA’s Virus Actions in Response to AFL-CIO

Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia defended OSHA’s response to the coronavirus crisis in a sharply worded letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Scalia’s letter Thursday was in response to a wave of criticism of OSHA and the Labor Department from union and worker activists, often connected to Worker Memorial Day actions this week and an April 28 letter Trumka sent Scalia.

Trumka told Scalia that “OSHA’s Covid-19 enforcement response plan is totally deficient, abandoning workers in meatpacking, poultry, grocery, transportation and other critical industries.”

Scalia rejected Trumka’s “counterproductive assertion that the Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ...