USW to Demonstrate over Compensation, Medical Care for Sick Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant Worker

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usw.org/uswa/program/content/4049.php

USW to Demonstrate over Compensation, Medical Care for Sick Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant Workers
Steelworkers tell Feds Not To Abandon Sick Workers

Media Advisory

WHAT: Demonstration by United Steelworkers (USW) members, former Rocky Flats workers, the Denver labor community and allies.

WHEN: Monday, June 11
4:30 p.m.

WHERE: Public sidewalk in front of Sheraton Denver West hotel, 360 Union Blvd. in Lakewood, Colorado

WHY: Thousands of former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant workers have been denied compensation and medical care for their cancers because they have been unable to prove their exposure to radiation at work. Incomplete, inaccurate and missing records of their exposure make it almost impossible to prove their cancers resulted from their work at the plant. When they finally are approved for compensation, one in ten of them dies before getting paid.

The USW, former Rocky Flats workers and their allies are demonstrating to send a message to the presidential-appointed Federal Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health that sick Rocky Flats workers deserve expedited compensation and medical care for their cancers. They sacrificed for their country during the Cold War and do not deserve to be abandoned.

To date, groups of workers from 18 sites have been approved to receive expedited compensation and medical care without having to prove their individual exposure to radiation. Rocky Flats workers have waited 839 days—nearly twice as long as other sites—for the federal advisory board to rule on their petition for special status.

There is evidence that the Bush administration wants to limit the compensation paid to sick nuclear workers. Congressional investigators have obtained internal memos that show the administration balking at the cost to pay claims and fighting to block measures that would increase workers’ chances of compensation.

CONTACT: Lynne Baker, USW Communications,
(o) 615-831-6782, (cell) 615-828-6169