Editor's note: For months, the labor movement, the business community, and Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been wrangling over streamlining the asbestosis litigation process through the creation of a trust fund to aid 1.8 million victims of asbestos-related disease. The process is coming to a head with the proposed establishment of a $108 billion trust fund to pay victims injured by asbestos, thousands of whom are building trades workers.

By Lane A. Clack
Goldberg, Persky, Jennings & White, P.C

A bill to end lawsuits by asbestos-exposure victims is being railroaded through the Senate Judiciary Committee by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. If enacted by the full U.S. Senate, then passed by the U.S. House, this law supported by Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush, will end asbestos victims' right to trial by jury, including cases already filed in the court system.

If the bill passes the overwhelming majority of building trades workers we represent will get zilch ($0) under the bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the bill on July 10. The national AFL-CIO has been pushing this bill, but it is devastating to the vast majority of workers who currently receive money. I know that the AFL-CIO is well-intentioned, but this bill is horrible - it will significantly hurt the workers. I don't think people appreciate that the bill will do the following:

1. Most asbestos victims with non-malignant disease who have historically been receiving payments will get nothing. In fact, the vast majority of building trades workers we currently represent will receive nothing more than the right to have an x-ray every three years. These, of course, are the building trade workers referred to us by the unions and who have documented asbestos scarring in their lungs.

2. There are approximately 250,000-300,000 pending asbestos claims. Each of these claims will have to be filed in the new bureaucracy created by the Act. Only a certain limited amount of money can be paid each year. Based on past experience with bankruptcy trusts literally years will pass before any claims are paid. Claims will actually be delayed under this system.

3. All existing settlements will be wiped out. We have, for example, major settlements with Halliburton and Honeywell which affect building trades workers. These settlements will be forfeited under the act. In fact, the company once headed by Vice President Cheney, Halliburton, will end up paying about 17% of the amount they just negotiated nationwide to settle all asbestos claims - which is why Halliburton is so much in favor of this legislation.

4. There is about $25-$28 billion dollars in bankruptcy trusts that are in the process of being finalized. These trusts will be wiped out. Many building trade workers would have qualified under the terms of these trusts, but will not qualify under the Hatch Act.

5. The values are simply inadequate. The people with the most serious disease are totally capped - which they are not under the current system. The people on the lower end receive nothing, although presently they receive money in the tort system. Most lung cancer cases involve some amount of smoking, but the payments to this class of victims is nominal or $0.

In short, the act will eliminate whole categories of building trade workers who presently receive money, will reduce payments to others, will deprive victims of settlements already negotiated and will deprive them of the right to file claims against the bankrupt companies. I personally do not believe that much of the money will actually be spent under the act because it allows so many ways to deny claims and limits the classes to whom payments must be made.

Under the Act, the administrator determines whether the money actually needs to be spent. We will have a large bureaucracy devoted to making sure that the annual payment limit is not overshot. And for this the workers agree to give up their constitutional right to a jury trial and to payments they have historically been entitled to under the judicial system. The national AFL-CIO needs to hear from you. If union labor stands together the Hatch bill can be defeated.

Please contact AFL-CIO head John Sweeney immediately, let him know you oppose the bill!

AFL-CIO
815 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C 20006
202-637-5000
Fax: 202-637-5058
Email: pseminar@aflcio.org