James D. Hodgson, Labor Secretary, Dies at 96 James D. Hodgson, who as President Richard M. Nixon's secretary of labor in the early 1970s promoted jobs for minority workers in the building trades and safer American workplaces, died on Nov. 28 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 96. In a message to colleagues, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said his family announced the death on Monday. Mr. Hodgson (pronounced HOD-sun) was later the ambassador to Japan in the Ford administration, but for most of his career he was a behind-the-scenes negotiator for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, hammering out labor contracts in the 1950s and "60s. After landing in Washington as the deputy to Labor Secretary George P. Shultz in 1969, he remained all but unknown, even to organized labor, as he quietly ran the department's day-to-day affairs for more than a year. But when Mr. Shultz became White House budget director in July 1970, Mr. Hodgson was thrust into the spotlight, and for the next two and a half years he was an important figure in the administration's political and legislative fights in Congress on labor issues. Early in his tenure, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 became law, greatly expanding the Labor Department's regulatory responsibilities and its authority to oversee federal and state compliance efforts. Toxic substances, dangerous machinery and a host of electrical, chemical and fire hazards were widespread at work sites, and Mr. Hodgson began the daunting tasks of identifying and policing them. He also undertook a campaign to promote an early affirmative-action initiative, called the Philadelphia Plan for its city of origin. The effort set goals and timetables for major contractors doing business with the government to hire more black plumbers, electricians, ironmongers and other workers in the building trades. Many unions opposed the plan, which had limited success. At a time of inflation and rising unemployment, strikes were mounted by longshoremen and farm workers in California, autoworkers in Ohio, teachers in Philadelphia, police officers in New York City and even Major League Baseball players, who in 1972 staged the first walkout in their history. Mr. Hodgson urged Congress to ban national transportation strikes and other walkouts that might severely affect the nation. But, conforming to administration policy, he sidestepped direct involvement in labor disputes. Mr. Hodgson's relations with labor in general and with George Meany, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., were cool at best. Mr. Hodgson stepped down in February 1973, early in Nixon's abortive second term, and was replaced by Peter J. Brennan, a construction trades union leader who had been a major Nixon political supporter. In June 1974, Nixon's nomination of Mr. Hodgson to be ambassador to Japan was approved by the Senate. Less than two months later, Nixon resigned in the Watergate scandal, and Mr. Hodgson served in Tokyo for the next three years under President Gerald R. Ford. Three decades after American atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, Japan had largely been rebuilt and Washington and Tokyo had settled on a security treaty, the status of Okinawa, and trade and monetary issues. Although it was a relatively quiet period in Japanese-American relations, Mr. Hodgson was generally given high marks as ambassador. James Day Hodgson was born on Dec. 3, 1915, in Dawson, Minn., to Fred Hodgson and the former Casaraha Day. His father owned a chain of lumber yards. James attended public schools in Dawson and studied sociology and anthropology at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1938. He was a supervisor for a state youth employment program for two years, and in 1941 joined Lockheed in Burbank, Calif., as a personnel clerk. In 1943, he married Maria Denend, who survives him. A son, Frederic, and a daughter, Nancy Nachman, are also among his survivors. Mr. Hodgson joined the Navy in 1943, rose to lieutenant and became an intelligence officer in the Pacific during World War II. He was discharged in 1946 and returned to Lockheed to work in personnel and labor relations. He participated in periodic contract negotiations with Lockheed's 100,000 employees and later with the International Association of Machinists, which represented aerospace workers. Union leaders regarded him as tough but fair-minded. He became vice president of industrial relations in 1968. Lockheed, which built many of America's most famous wartime and postwar aircraft, was one of the first big corporations to recruit and train black and Hispanic workers in the early 1960s. Mr. Hodgson promoted that program and a company plan that chipped in 50 cents for every dollar that workers invested in stocks or savings. In the 1960s, he was a consultant to the City of Los Angeles and the State of California on automation and staffing problems, and taught classes at the University of California, Los Angeles. With Marshall H. Brenner, he wrote "Successful Experience: Training Hard-Core Unemployed," a 1968 article in The Harvard Business Review. After returning from his ambassadorship in Japan, Mr. Hodgson was chairman of the Pathfinder Mines Corporation, a uranium mining company, from 1977 to 1982, and served on other corporate boards as well. He also taught at Harvard, Stanford and other universities. He was the author of "American Senryu" (1992), a collection of short poems similar to haiku, and with Yoshihiro Sano and John L. Graham wrote "Doing Business With the New Japan" (2000).