This and similar stories were retold over and over by workers and surviving family members at two meetings sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to introduce a new program being jointly administered with the Department of Labor under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.

This act, passed last October, provides up to $150,000 in lump sum payments and related medical expenses to workers who can prove they were exposed to beryllium, silica, or radiation while working for plants related to the nuclear weapons industry.

Brush Beryllium, now Brush Wellman, operated the Lorain site under contract with the Atomic Energy Commission to produce beryllium pebbles from 1949 to 1958. Beryllium is a metallic element used chiefly in copper alloys to reduce fatigue in springs and electrical contacts.

The act also provides some benefits for uranium workers. The U.S. government has established regional offices in Seattle, Denver, Cleveland, and Jacksonville, Florida, to process these claims. The first compensation payments for uranium workers were issued August 9 in Paducah, Kentucky, site of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which enriches uranium for nuclear reactors.

Representatives of the government agencies administering the act spoke and answered questions from some 80 workers and relatives who attended meetings here July 27. Joshua Silverman, a representative of the Energy Department's Office of Worker Advocacy, began by praising those in attendance for "helping keep this country safe in World War II and winning the Cold War; the nation owes you a debt of gratitude, and we at the Department of Energy want to overcome our legacy of past practice and acknowledge your sacrifice in helping build our country's nuclear supremacy."

A lengthy presentation of the provisions of the law was then met by sharp testimony, as one speaker after another from the audience confronted the government officials.

"As far as I am concerned, there has been and still is a massive cover-up here. My dad used to come home from work covered with beryllium dust. Brush told us there was no danger to the family. He died at the age of 42, barely able to catch his breath," said Patricia Rossak. "There were no medical records back then because the workers didn't know what they were being exposed to, so how are we supposed to document a claim?"

Her sentiment was echoed by another woman whose father worked at Harshaw Chemical Co. "Poor Blacks in those days could not afford medical treatment," she said. "My father's death certificate does not say anything about radiation exposure. There wasn't even a union contract until the year after he died in 1956." Harshaw Chemical operated a uranium refinery in Cleveland that produced black oxide and sodium diuranate, used to make nuclear weapons-grade fuel for the Manhattan Project--the first atomic bomb--during World War II.

"My father, Stanley Godanoy, was a construction worker and leadburner at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos. He worked out of the union hall, which doesn't exist any more. There are no records of where many of these men worked and what they were exposed to. The companies just used them up and threw them away," said one woman, whose remarks were warmly greeted by others attending the meeting.

Another worker who now suffers from chronic beryllium disease commented, "The actions of the company and the government were deplorable. We all knew we were getting sick but they denied it. Brush said berylliosis--as we called it back then, in the 1950s and '60s--did not exist and told us that the only way to diagnosis you is to cut your lungs open, which would kill you. So a lot of the guys I worked with just went quietly to their graves. If they really didn't know that the work we were doing was so dangerous, then why were they always pressuring us to sign waiver forms? I want to know why has it taken so long for you all to recognize this?"

In the informal discussion that took place outside the meeting afterward, a number of people expressed the opinion that the only reason the government is doing anything about this issue was because it was under pressure to protect the companies and feared a more massive outcry from workers and their families in the nuclear industry. A number were interested to read the coverage in the Militant of the victory of uranium miners in a long-fought Colorado lawsuit.

Many also objected to the provision of the act that allows payment only to children who were below the age of 18 when their parent died, citing the often lengthy gestation period of these chronic diseases.

When the government officials explained that by accepting the compensation provisions, claimants automatically gave up their right to participate in any of the numerous class-action lawsuits pending against these companies, Jeff Bernsee commented, to wide applause, that this amounted to a "taxpayer bailout of Brush Wellman, and a continuation of the cover-up."

Eva Braiman is a meat packer and the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Cleveland.  
 
 
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