Document Ym48d3DJdObYqE805j4n0prE

TM INTER-COMPANY AND OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE Tot W. F. Gabel subj*ct: NEWS ARTICLE from: N. M. Blackman Located at: LEOMINSTER, MA date: March 2, 1981 Attached for your information. NMB/cah Attachment cc: M. w. K1 ine H. R. Jepsen G. D. Bevis W. T. Gerson \w. B. Barton V Rosenzweig J. Isler, Or. N. M. Blackman t0 Otpt. { Otvtnon Comply BOR 000397 gj___________________________ Jersey Hooker Plant Struck fPver Importing of Toxic Gas By DONALD JANSON Spkuim n itn Ym Tin BURLINGTON. N.J., Feb. 27 -- All 351 Andrew Slnkleris, a chemical com members of a union local have struck a pounder who mixes chemicals to make Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corpora vinyl sheeting, said on tbe picket line that tion plant here after learning that the the union bad "a responsibility to the company had brought a highly toxic gas. community" to alert It to this venting. In nitric oxide, into the plant without con addition, he said, workers must know sulting the union. aboutany dangers of tbe nitric oxide sys "They snuck it in." said William tem that is being substituted. Boyea, who was among those picketing Mr. Katherine said tbe nitric oxide sys today at the, plant, on. the Delaware tem had been used safely at other planted- River. `They're trying to kill us. They But Robert Hammell, another picket-' have ignored a request for safety and er, said It was being stored next'to the health protections." vats, which he said could beat up to' 200 The workers--members of Local <*2 of degrees Fahrenheit and might cause the the United Glass and Ceramic Workers nitric oxide cylinders to explode, releas Union -- began their wildcat walkout ing the highly toxic gas. Monday night, after they learned about He said workers learned that the nitric the delivery of the gas. They alsocharged oxide had been brought into the plant not that, in the last five years, 11 employees from the company but from deliverers exposed to toxic vinyl chloride at the for the contractor that will operate the planrhad suffered heart attacks or con system. tracted cancer. Lack of Controls Alleged During a news conference at the plant today, Robert a. Katherine, a Hooker Mr. Hammell said workers then found vice president and general manager labels with skull and crossbones warning, here, said the plant's medical staff had them that the cylinders, which were the investigated,the 11 cases and found that size of railroad box cars, contained "poi "ndcausalcbhhection could be drawn be sonous compressed gas" that "may be tween these health problems and the fatal if inhaled." work exposure." ' Mr. Katherine said Hooker Intended to Dr.J Mitchell" Zaven, the corporate train the workers in how to handle and' medical director for Hooker, which has 70 use tbe nitric oxide later, when the com s around the country, flew here from pany was ready to start using the system. pmpany's headquarters in Niagara The workers said that was not good ;-N.YrAt the: press conference, be enough. affirmed Mr. Katherine's statement. "They are totally ignoring any safety Yesterday.the uniotrhere notified the control here whatsoever," Mr. Boyea company that itstmembers would not re maintained "And they are downplaying turn.' to work until Hooker promised no tbe number of job-related deaths even disciplinary action for the walkout and though they have settled some of the agreedtodiscuss ttae bMltb concerns. cases out of court." - Refuses io Grant'Amnesty' At the news conference. Hooker execu tives said there had been 11 heart attacks However,-*Mr., Katherine said there among workers in the last five years and would be no such ".amnesty" for an."ille- that two medical cases bad been settled ?al strike"and that the union should have outof court. rsked for a meeting on health concerns Robert Fine, director of Engineering oefore striking. The union's contract, and Maintenance and Environmental vith a no-strike daiisefis effective until Safety for the plant, said in an interview October, that doctors for the union had recently Mr. Katherine said 30'cylinders of ni asked for and been given a list of the tric opdde were brought to tbe plant re chemicals and pigments employees cently to be used to stop "runaway reac worked with. tions'' in plastic-making vats. K* "Injection of nitric oxide sttys'ariy run Company Cited Last April away. chemical reaction so no vinyl chlo Richard Engler, associate director of ride will 'be^emptied into the atmos the Philadelphia area Project an Occupa phere," he said.;/ tional Safety and Health, which helps -When ebemiai!' reactions in the Vkts unions'identify and control on-the-job Hooker for exposing workers here to ex aried perscnnel, Including salesmen and get'out of hanid now, he said, vinyl'chlo safety and health problems, said later' cessive levels of vinyl chloride in the sir researchers, had since taken over tbe ride ts vented into the air. that the information was being used to in the plant ovef-'a period of years. Mr. union's work and the plant was operating He said the Environmental Protection look into causes for deaths and illnesses Fine said that bad since been corrected. at 50 percent of capacity. Agency had Ordered' Hooker to change of Hooker workers. Workers in the vat-rooms wear respira He said secretaries and others would be that system,.,. . He said, and Mr. Fine confirmed, that tors. permitted to join ia this work next, "and Dr. avon said vinyl chloride was car the Federal Occupational Safety and Mr. Katherine said that at first the we will be close to 100 percent in a couple cinogenic. . Health Administration last April cited walkout shut down the plant, but that sal- of weeks." BOR 000398