Meet blogger Jordan Barab. Jordan writes:
I spent 16 years running AFSCME's health and safety program, defending and expanding the rights of public employees to work in a safe workplace. Many people don't know it, but in 26 states, public employees don't even have the federally guaranteed right to a safe workplace. And it's not just those "backward" southern states. It's also "progressive" northern states like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. And we're not talking "just" bureaucrats. We're talking highway workers, public works, wastewater treatment, corrections officers, firefighters, health care workers, mental health workers, social workers, bridge workers and on and on. Some of the most dangerous, undervalued, unappealing, but necessary work that this society demands to be able to live the relatively safe and comfortable lives Americans have become accustomed to. In 1998, I was appointed a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for OSHA, serving as national Labor Liaison, ergonomics coordinator and other duties. That was a "political appointment," so I turned into a pumpkin at noon, January 20, 2001. I then "consulted" for the AFL-CIO Health and Safety Department for a year and a half. Now I have a different day job, and in my "spare" time, this.
"This" refers to the excellent and award-winning blog "Confined Space", which has been on our list of blog links for a long time. Jordan is shutting it down on January 24, 2007, for reasons explained in one of the final posts of the blog, Moving On: Closing Up Shop. Good night and good luck, Jordan.
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