News update.
11 January 2002. Asbestos scandal * Asbestos fightback


Minister backs asbestos company’s deadly game

A UK government minister has blamed the US compensation system for an asbestos compensation crisis that could see UK workers robbed of asbestos disease payouts – but she offered no proposals or support to the UK's beleaguered victims.

Speaking in a 10 January House of Commons adjournment debate, Melanie Johnson MP, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for trade and industry, said US multinational Federal Mogul, owner of one-time UK asbestos giant Turner and Newall, is swamped by asbestos claims in the US that “drain money away from that available to pay people suffering from asbestos-related illnesses, both in the US and the UK.”

The company is seeking “protective bankruptcy” in the US, which means it can continue to make money while suspending all asbestos compensation payouts.

Labour MP John Battle, who called the debate, told the Commons: “If a company such as Federal Mogul has found a way of using administration and bankruptcy procedures to ditch its asbestos liabilities and to refuse to pay anything more to victims, that is a scandal that the government must address…it now means taking on the high-level, international corporate gamesmanship that continues the war of attrition against asbestos victims.”

The minister, however, backed the Federal Mogul strategy: “The approach adopted by the FM group seems to us the most sensible in the circumstances, but what is important is that the administrators and those representing the interests of all concerned get on with the job quickly,” she said.

House of Commons adjournment debate, Asbestos compensation, Hansard, 10 January 2002

ASBESTOS FIGHTBACK!

Clydebank asbestos seminar, 18 January

The seminar will provide an opportunity to discuss the campaigning needs of the year ahead. Speakers will provide an overview of the current legal situation in asbestos litigation, focusing on the Clydeside Action on Asbestos Petition, the insolvency of Federal Mogul (parent company of Turner and Newall) and the consequences of the Fairchild decision. The meeting will be chaired by Des McNulty MSP, and speakers include: Bill Speirs, general secretary STUC; Professor Andrew Watterson, University of Stirling; Frank Maguire, solicitor advocate; Duncan McNeil MSP; and Pauline McNeill MSP.

Asbestos seminar, Clydebank Town Hall, Friday 18 January 2002, 10.00am-12.30pm. For more information, see the meeting leaflet or email Tommy Gorman

Stop the insurers robbing asbestos victims! Public meeting, 8 February

Asbestos victims face debilitating and often deadly disease – and recent moves are robbing them of their compensation as well as their health. Turner and Newall, once Britain’s biggest asbestos company, is insolvent. And a compensation appeal, the Fairchild judgement, could mean many thousands more workers will not be compensated. A public meeting to discuss the crisis has been called by the Bradford, Cheshire, Merseyside, West Yorkshire, Sheffield & Rotherham and Greater Manchester asbestos support groups. Tony Lloyd MP, who worked at T&N, will be speaking, along with trade unionists, campaigners and solicitors who are petitioning the House of Lords. The meeting will discuss a possible lobby of parliament and other action to get justice for asbestos victims.

Public Meeting, Friday 8 February 2002, 7-9pm, Friends Meeting House, Manchester. For more information see the meeting leaflet and briefing, telephone 0161 953 4037 or email Tony Whitston.