AFL-CIO slams asbestos proposal
By Greg Gordon, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
AFL-CIO officials on Thursday denounced a key Senate Republican's proposal for a $108 billion global settlement of asbestos injury claims as worse for victims than the current system.John Sweeney, president of the labor organization, charged that the measure proposed by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is "a major step backward . . . merely a vehicle to relieve businesses and insurers of hundreds of billions of dollars in liability."
The AFL-CIO's comments set back Hatch's six-month-old effort to forge a settlement. The talks have been aimed at creating a trust fund to compensate as many as 2 million workers who have contracted or are projected to contract lung diseases from asbestos exposure.
Under the current system, hundreds of thousands of personal-injury suits by people with asbestos-related diseases have driven 67 companies into bankruptcy, leaving those claimants little hope for significant compensation.
AFL-CIO general counsel Jon Hiatt told reporters that, after years of failed settlement talks, labor unions were more hopeful this year when a group of a dozen major companies got involved and "assured us they weren't looking to do this on the cheap."
But, he said, "hard-liners" in an alliance of about 200 companies represented by the National Association of Manufacturers "hijacked the negotiations" along with Hatch, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Joel Johnson, a spokesman for the big companies, said they are mindful that to reach a deal they must "win the support of other important actors."
AFL-CIO officials said Hatch's bill caps the trust fund at an unrealistically low $108 billion. In addition, the labor organization said, Hatch's bill sets overly restrictive medical criteria that would short-change workers with serious lung problems and would require doctors to prove their patients' exposures.
Meanwhile, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., again introduced legislation calling for a U.S. ban on the sale, distribution or import of asbestos-containing products - a measure co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
Although health experts predict that asbestos exposure will ultimately contribute to more than half a million U.S. deaths, asbestos is still used in brake linings and a number of other products.
An advisory panel of the Environmental Protection Agency this month recommended a total ban. The agency imposed such a ban in 1989, but after manufacturers sued, an appeals court overturned it in 1991.
Dayton said the recommendation of the EPA panel shows a growing recognition that a ban is "the only way we can prevent these tragedies in the future."
He said he would argue that a ban should accompany passage of any settlement legislation because, without it, "there's no end in sight."
Greg Gordon is at ggordon@mcclatchydc.com.
