Articles by Jordan Barab

Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last Thursday at a hearing before the full House Education and Workforce Committee, and although I take great pleasure in (deservedly) criticizing Trump administration appointees, he wasn’t terrible — as Trump appointees go. Now let me qualify a bit. I’m focusing only on workplace safety issues, not on any wage and hour, apprenticeship or other labor issues that were addressed during the hearing. Second, his performance varied from fairly decent (regarding enforcement issues) to pretty bad (regarding standard setting and staffing.) 

In a 3-1 vote, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) voted yesterday to withdraw recommendations calling for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to strengthen worker participation requirements and to take measures to prohibit retaliation against workers who use their rights. Chair Vanessa Sutherland, joined by members Manny Ehrlich and Kristen Kulinowski voted to rescind the recommendations despite a spirited defense by Board member Rick Engler who voted to keep the recommendations.

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) may be preparing to take a significant step backwards in its advocacy for worker participation in preventing chemical facility incidents, including catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In April, 2016 the CSB unanimously approved a 4-volume “Macondo Investigation Report” in response to the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon blowout that killed 11 workers, injured 17 and spilled 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The report contained a number of recommendations, including four recommendations calling for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to significantly enhance its regulations requiring worker participation in the employer’s safety program, and enhanced whistleblower protections for workers participating in safety activities.

Rockford police officer killed after traffic stop ROCKFORD, Ill. — A Rockford police officer was killed in the line of duty, and a man he pulled over was also killed, after the two were involved in a “scuffle” early Sunday, according to officials. Rockford Chief of Police Dan O’Shea said 30-year-old Officer Jamie Cox, who had been on the force for about a year, pulled over 49-year-old Eddie Patterson as he drove a small pickup truck near the northwest suburb around 1 a.m. Sunday.

The New York Times has an article about failure of most hotel guests to give low-paid, hard-working housekeepers a much appreciated tip. Aside from the hard work they do, the Times also notes the hazards of the job. Angela Lemus, a housekeeper at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill who makes $19.91 per hour, said through a translator that in addition to scrubbing tubs and taking out trash, she sometimes has to clean blood or other medical waste from rooms.

I get a lot of health and safety-related news alerts emailed to be every day. Some days are worse than others. Here is a sample from yesterday. (With a little commentary.) Someone asked me this morning how writing this blog doesn’t throw me into depression. To some extent it’s an outlet, keeping me from kicking the dogs and throwing things at TV. But then there are days like today when it all seems like too much.

Back from vacation and checking in with people to see what’s going on at the agency charged with assuring the safety and health of American workers. And the answer is not much…and a lot. The Mysteriously Missing Assistant Secretary: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee yesterday approved the nominations of a Deputy Secretary (Patrick Pizzella), the head of Wage & Hour (Cheryl Stanton), and the head of MSHA (David Zatezalo), all on identical party line votes (all the R’s voted for the nominees, and all of the Dems voted against.)

An unmanned, half-mile long train “bomb train” carrying tank-cars full of highly explosive crude oil barrels toward a city where it is doomed to derail on a curve, killing everyone in its wake. Luckily, Denzel Washington and Chris Pine show up to save the city at the last second. Everyone lives happily every after.

One of the free services we provide here at Confined Space world headquarter is helping journalists write better articles. Here we have a news outlet doing the right thing: “News4 I-Team’s Lindsay Bramson started watching construction sites after learning 12 construction workers have died in the past two years.”