President Obama has named more working family advocates to important administration posts than any of his Democratic predecessors. Among them are:
- Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Deputy Secretary Seth Harris, Solicitor M. Patricia Smith, OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels, MSHA Assistant Secretary Joe Main, Employee Benefits Security Administration Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi and Senior Adviser Mary Beth Maxwell;
- Union lawyers Craig Becker (whose term expired in January 2012), Mark Pearce (current) and Richard Griffin (current) to the NLRB;
- Former
Air Line Pilots
President Randy Babbitt as administrator of the FAA;
- Former union lawyer Julia Clark as general counsel to the Federal Labor Relations Authority;
- Former union lawyer George Cohen as director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) and former Machinists General Counsel Allison Beck as FMCS deputy director;
- Joe Szabo, state legislative director of the
United Transportation Union
in Illinois, as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration;
- Dan Elliott,
UTU
counsel, as chairman of the Surface Transportation Board;
-
Firefighters
HazMat/WMD Training Department Director Elizabeth M. Harman as Federal Emergency Management Agency assistant administrator of the Grant Program Directorate;
- A diverse group of judges to the federal bench, including three current or former union lawyers and a record number of African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans;
- Former
Operating Engineers
Program Director Edna Primrose to be national director of the Office of Job Corps in the Department of Labor.
