Brett Kavanaugh is a threat to all workers, and I hope that Sen. Susan Collins opposes his nomination. Since his time as a Bush White House insider, he has done his best to erode workers’ rights and protections while siding with large corporations and the wealthy. This is his established work record.

A few years ago at SeaWorld, a professional trainer was killed at work by a whale – their fourth trainer death. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated, found safety violations and issued a citation for this preventable death of that worker.

SeaWorld appealed, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said the OSHA citation was valid. Kava- naugh disagreed, and in his dissent described this professional trainer’s work as “playing with dangerous animals” and questioned whether workers should be “protected from themselves.”

I am a welder at Bath Iron Works and have worked there for 30 years. Every day I am grateful for safety laws and regulations. They are what allow me and my co-workers to return home to our families at the end of the day.

If the time should come when – like the SeaWorld trainer – I do not live through the workday, I don’t want my family to hear someone who is paid with my own tax dollars say I was just “playing with dangerous tools” and shouldn’t need “protection from myself.” I am proud of the ships we build in Bath and hope we get a Supreme Court justice who is capable of respecting the efforts of ordinary people like me.

Robert Jacobs

Dresden