In Congress, a bipartisan effort has been under way to develop compensation packages for sick workers or their surviving spouses. One piece of legislation calls for a lump-sum payment of up to $200,000 or a package consisting of lost wages, medical benefits and job retraining for workers who have developed silicosis, beryllium-related disorders or cancer that can be connected to workplace exposure. But on Monday, talks within a House-Senate conference committee discussing the measure broke down, making it unlikely that this legislation will pass before the session ends.
Under the proposal, workers who opt for the package and are not already engaged in lawsuits will waive their right to sue contractors, vendors or the DOE for their maladies. "We think we can offer a generous enough offer that they won't sue," says Michaels. But neither will the program bust the federal government. Of the 600,000 people who toiled in the nuclear-weapons complex over the last fifty years, only a "few thousand people at most" will be eligible for compensation, he adds.
Janet Brown back when she worked at Rocky Flats -- a job that she says made her sick.
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Michael Jackson and others who are already plaintiffs in such lawsuits think this provision lets industry and government officials off too easily. "They should be held accountable," Jackson says. But Michaels points out that contractors and vendors are indemnified anyway, which means the federal government is picking up the legal expenses.
The proposed legislation has other problems, however. For example, some kind of medical board will have to "reconstruct" radiation doses received by workers and then decide whether those doses were likely to have caused an individual's cancer. But dose reconstructions, as well as the connection between low levels of radiation and cancer, are extremely controversial. Furthermore, not only are film badges and other exposure records incomplete or missing altogether, but some facilities intentionally underestimated workers' doses.
At Rocky Flats, says former union leader Jim Kelly, plant officials used a fudge factor when they were calculating doses until they got figures down to where they were acceptable. "Record-keeping was lousy, nonexistent and sloppy," he says. "They ignored their own scruples and ignored their ethics. In doing so, they sentenced a lot of people to sickness and death."
If disputes arise, Michaels responds, they will be decided in the worker's favor. "Workers will be given the benefit of the doubt," he says.
But radiation wasn't the only health hazard at these plants. Many past and present workers in the country's nuclear complex believe their illnesses can be linked to massive overexposures to chemicals. At Rocky Flats, machinists and chemical operators used solvents such as perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride as though they were soap and water. Pipefitters worked with asbestos-covered pipes; painters used lead-based paint; welders were exposed to nickel and chromium; researchers breathed in formaldehyde fumes.
Even though the White House's National Economic Council concedes that chemical exposures may have contributed to workers' illnesses, individuals such as Janet Brown apparently won't be eligible for the compensatory package. Instead, Michaels says, they'll get help filing for worker's compensation and other benefits through a new workers' advocacy office that will be established as part of the legislation. "This won't make everybody happy," he adds, "but it's a very fair first attempt."
Count Janet Brown among the unhappy ones. She thinks the bill doesn't go far enough and intends to keep amassing information, networking with other workers, and talking to the media until the government comes around. "The United States was the victor in the Cold War," she concludes. "We shouldn't be the victims."
