{"id":1074,"date":"2010-06-02T15:40:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T14:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2010-06-03T10:13:37","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T09:13:37","slug":"would-you-trust-this-man-with-your-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/2010\/06\/02\/would-you-trust-this-man-with-your-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you trust this man with your safety?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrisgrayling.net\/images\/phMP240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"137\" height=\"206\" \/>A UK member of parliament referred to in the press as a Conservative Party \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/conservativehome.blogs.com\/thetorydiary\/2010\/03\/who-should-be-the-tory-attack-dog.html\">attack dog\u2019<\/a> and who previously worked for a PR firm that creates front organisations for polluting industries is the new health and safety minister.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrisgrayling.net\/grayling.htm\">Chris Grayling<\/a>, who was shadow Home Secretary before the election but whose star appears to have fallen after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1180656\/Attack-dog-Tory-Chris-Grayling-brought-heel-properties.html\">a sequence of gaffes and sleaze allegations<\/a> which left even the rabidly pro-Tory <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/christopherhope\/100025229\/whats-the-matter-with-chris-grayling-has-the-tory-attack-dog-lost-his-bite\/\">Telegraph<\/a> bemused, is now minister of state at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dwp.gov.uk\/about-dwp\/ministers\/index.shtml\">Department of Work and Pensions (DWP<\/a>). He reports to DWP secretary of state Iain Duncan Smith.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Grayling, who has been MP for Epsom and Ewell since 2001, started his career as a BBC and Channel 4 journalist before moving into public relations.<\/p>\n<p>His website notes he subsequently became \u201ca director in the Employee Communication practice at international communications firm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.burson-marsteller.com\/Practices_And_Specialties\/Corporate_Financial_Communications\/clc\/Pages\/CrisisLitigationCommunications.aspx\">Burson-Marsteller<\/a>. He ended his time there as the firm&#8217;s European Marketing Director.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company is well-known in trade union, health and safety and environmental activist circles. Burson-Marsteller is one of the more prominent &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/query.nytimes.com\/gst\/fullpage.html?res=9D03E0DA1130F936A35755C0A9619C8B63\">union busting<\/a>&#8216; firms and has acted on behalf of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php?title=Burson-Marsteller\">asbestos, tobacco, nuclear and chemical firms<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corporatewatch.org\/?lid=395\/strong\/font\/pp\">regulatory and compensation issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is also regarded as a pioneer in the creation of \u2018astroturf\u2019 organisations, supposedly grassroots lobbying organisations that in fact support industry arguments.<\/p>\n<p>In \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.defendingscience.org\/Doubt_is_Their_Product.cfm\">Doubt is their product\u2019<\/a>, academic David Michaels \u2013 who is now the head of the US government\u2019s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, says the company created the cleverly named \u2018Foundation for Clean Air Progress.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>He writes: \u201cThe organisation is run by Burson-Marsteller, the PR firm, using funds provided by the petroleum, trucking and other polluting industries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A UK member of parliament referred to in the press as a Conservative Party \u2018attack dog\u2019 and who previously worked for a PR firm that creates front organisations for polluting industries is the new health and safety minister. Chris Grayling, who was shadow Home Secretary before the election but whose star appears to have fallen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[201,200,199,203,205,206,136,208,204,202,207,209],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1074"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions\/1080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}