First Person Narrative
April 2025
- “Newsom follows Trump’s lead in cutting worker safety funding while Cal/OSHA inspector vacancies remain above 40%,” Garrett Brown, April 8, 2025
- “Cal/OSHA acknowledges spending only 71% of enforcement funding in 2023 while Governor Newsom proposes a $21 million cut in enforcement starting in July 2025,” Garrett Brown, March 19, 2025
- “Cal/OSHA faces a perfect storm: Inspector vacancies remain above 40% while Governor Newsom proposes a $21 million cut in Cal/OSHA enforcement, and employers get a 74% decrease in assessments to fund Cal/OSHA,” Garrett Brown, March 11, 2025
February 2025
- “Cal/OSHA inspector vacancies continue above 40% while Los Angeles workers threatened in fire recovery efforts,” Garrett Brown, February 6, 2025
- “Newsom’s defense of Californians should start with his own administration,” Garrett Brown, Confined Space blogspot, December 13, 2024
- “Cal/OSHA’s staffing problems persist – so do we,” Stephen Knight, Medium, November 20, 2024
- “Cal/OSHA inspector vacancy rate grows in both new and existing enforcement offices,” Garrett Brown, November 12, 2024
- “Cal/OSHA announces major reorganization as vacancies remain above 40%,” Garrett Brown, August 26, 2024
- House Democrats letter to Julie Su regarding Cal/OSHA performance, August 20, 2024
- “Cal/OSHA enforcement inspector vacancies top 100 positions,” Garrett Brown, July 25, 2024
- “Crisis deepens for California’s worker protection agencies,” Garrett Brown, June 13, 2024
April 2024
- “Cal/OSHA staffing crisis deepens as 2024 enters second quarter,” Garrett Brown, April 9, 2024
February 2024
- Labor and community organizations urge Governor Newsom to swiftly appoint a new Cal/OSHA Chief, letter organized by Worksafe, February 20, 2024
- “Cal/OSHA understaffing continues as Chief heads for the door,” Garrett Brown, January 16, 2024
December 2023
- “Cal/OSHA District Office Vacancies Hit Critical Level,” Garrett Brown, October 7, 2023
- “Enforcement Staff Vacancies Undercut Cal/OSHA Effectiveness,” Garrett Brown, May 1, 2023
- “New Year Brings the Same Enforcement Staffing Vacancies,” Garrett Brown, January 17, 2023
- “Cal/OSHA Enforcement Hiring Remains Anemic,” Garrett Brown, April 22, 2022
- “New Cal/OSHA Chief Facing Continuing Vacancies in Enforcement,” Garrett Brown, March 7, 2022
- “Unused Funds in DOSH Budget Held as a Reserve,” Garrett Brown, April 9, 2022
July 2020
- “July 2020 Stats at DOSH: Crippling vacancies continue as Governor Newsom starts his second full fiscal year,” July 27, 2020
- “PEER speaks out about crisis at Cal/OSHA,” Garrett Brown, July 2, 2020
June 2020
- “Crisis at Cal/OSHA: Crippling vacancies, no net hiring in six months, 18 months after Gavin Newsom became California Governor,” Garrett Brown, June 26, 2020
April 2020
- “Terribly weakened Cal/OSHA facing COVID infections and ‘restart’ hazards,” Garrett Brown, April 30, 2020
March 2020
- Testimony before the California Commission on the Future of Work, March 12, 2020
- Testimony of Garrett Brown
- Testimony of the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), University of California at Berkeley
- Testimony of the National Employment Law Program (NELP)
- Testimony of Worksafe
- “Cal/OSHA inspector vacancies continue to grow; field positions are eliminated,” Garrett Brown, March 11, 2020
January 2020
- “Cal/OSHA starts new year with more inspector, manager vacancies,” Garrett Brown, January 20, 2020
November 2019
- “Another landmine for California’s workers from Christine Baker’s toxic legacy at the Department of Industrial Relations,” Garrett Brown, November 25, 2019
- “Dramatic jump in enforcement inspector vacancies at Cal/OSHA,” Garrett Brown, November 13, 2019
August 2019
- “Cal/OSHA gets a new Chief (finally!) – Welcome to Doug Parker,” Garrett Brown, August 16, 2019
July 2019:
- “Cal/OSHA riddled with vacancies at start of new state fiscal year,” Garrett Brown, July 17, 2019
June 2019
- “Cal/OSHA status at the end of the state fiscal year 2018-19,” Garrett Brown, June 19, 2019
- “Hiring freeze leaves Cal/OSHA with growing vacancies,” Garrett Brown, June 3, 2019
April 2019
- “Cal/OSHA’s ‘Zombie Chief’ needs to step aside, and now, please,” Garrett Brown, April 11, 2019
- “Audit reveals profound corruption – both personal and political – in California’s labor department and political class,” Garrett Brown April 4, 2019
March 2018
- Garrett Brown, “Cal/OSHA’s disappearing field inspector positions; What the California Legislature gives, the Brown Administration takes away,” The Pump Handle – Blog text
September 2017
- Garrett Brown, “Cal/OSHA’s disappearing funds – where’s the money?,” The Pump Handle — Blog text
- Garrett Brown, “Worker protection or deregulation? The moment of truth for EHS,” Industrial Safety & Hygiene News — Article text
- Kim Krisberg and Celeste Monforton, “The Year in U.S. Occupational Health & Safety; Fall 2016 – Summer 2017” — Report text
August 2017
- RAND Corporation, “Working Conditions in the United States; Results of the 2015 American Working Conditions survey” — Report text
July 2017
- Garrett Brown, “California work fatalities and injuries on the rise while millions of dollars of enforcement resources are left ‘sitting on the table’,” The Pump Handle — Blog text
- Garrett Brown, “’Refinery Town’ points the way forward to protect communities and defend rights,” New Solutions — Article text
June 2017
- Garrett Brown, “A well-known secret: The ‘reverse business case’ threatens worker health and safety,” The Pump Handle — Blog text
March 2017
- Garrett Brown, “Labor-Enviro-Community coalition wins stronger California oil refinery regulations and showcases a winning strategy for worker and community health” — Blog text
February 2017
- Garrett Brown and Deeg Gold, “A strategic response to Trump’s ‘ripping off the Band-Aid’ to workers’ health and safety: Defense of the status quo ante is not enough” — Blog text
January 2017
- Garrett Brown, “Refinery Town” points the way forward to protect communities and defend rights” — Blog text
August 2016
- Garrett Brown, “Federal oversight of Cal/OSHA – What is it good for?” – Blog text
- Garrett Brown, “Cherry-Picked Data Hides the Toll of Work Injuries in California”
- Blog text
- DOSH Enforcement Staffing Summary Chart – July 2016
- DOSH Bilingual Pay Summary Chart – June 2016
August 2015
- Garrett Brown, Letter to the Editor of the Cal/OSHA Reporter
July 2015
- Garrett Brown, “DIR Responds to Fed OSHA’s letter on the PEER CASPA”
June 2015
- Garrett Brown “Two Questions about the DIR BCP”
May 2015
- Garrett Brown, “Latino worker deaths jump in California”
- Garrett Brown, “Message to Cal/OSHA Advisory Committee
January 2015
- Garrett Brown, “Initial Analysis: DIR’s Budget Change Proposal for Cal/OSHA for California State Fiscal Year 2015/16”
- Garrett Brown, “A moment sometimes captures the essence” – web version of the blog text
- DIR December 2014 Event – September 2014 draft program
- DIR December 2014 event – Final program
- DOSH Enforcement Staffing Summary Chart – December 2014
- DOSH Vital Statistics Available during 2014
October 2014
- Garrett Brown, “New laws and regs – Great! But who will enforce them?”
September 2014
- Garrett Brown, “One Year After the Coup: Who’s running the show?”
August 2014
- Garrett Brown and anonymous DOSH employees
July 2014
- Garrett Brown, “DIR’s Micro-Managing and Open Door for Political Favoritism”
June 2014
- Garrett Brown, “Witness to a Coup”
May 2014
- Garrett Brown, “Why you should care about Cal/OSHA”
April 2014
- Garrett Brown, “DIR’s budget shell game”
March 2014
- Jack Oudiz, “DOSH: Death by a thousand cuts” COR – March 14, 2014
