Retirees at GE plant in Canada see hope for health claims
Harding, who spent nearly 40 years working at the plant until she retired in 2004, has also had cancer, as have many of her former colleagues.
"Once we got out of there and retired, everyone started to get sick," she said.
For more than a decade, several hundred retirees from the hulking
Ontario Labor Minister
"A number of people should have been treated better by the system," Flynn said afterward in an interview.
His support followed release of a lengthy report conducted by researchers hired by the union representing workers at the plant that found exposure to more than 3,000 toxic chemicals from 1945 to 2000 and significant health problems among former employees. It also came after an extensive series of reports by
The company has not conceded that any illnesses were caused by working at the plant and says chemicals were used in what were believed to be safe ways at the time.
"As more information became available about chemical use,
Workers in
Generations of
It now has just 440 employees producing large motors for the mining and oil industries.
Harding started working at the plant in 1965 and did a number of jobs. A denial letter from Workplace Safety and Insurance Board stipulates she didn't have enough exposure time to asbestos to qualify for compensation for her bladder cancer.
"I worked in the plant 39 and three-quarter years. They credited me with six and three-quarter years that I worked around dangerous chemicals, so what happened to the other 34 years?" she said. "Did they change all the air in the plant and take the chemicals away? It was a wide-open plant. They said there were walls. There wasn't."
Harding, 71, lives alone in a house filled with family photos. Her husband loved doing yard work and she vows to keep it up. Her father also worked at the
Fowler also blames his cancer on asbestos. The compensation board denied him because they found he didn't have enough exposure. But he is more optimistic now that Flynn is publicly supporting the retirees.
"We are the Erin Brockovich of
"It's been a long road," Leal said. "Gosh. It's personal and emotional. I remember someone came in and visited me in my constituency office in
Dr.
Harding wants all the claims looked at again. She doesn't know how much compensation she might get. She just wants justice, noting people continue to die.
"We just had another man die on the weekend," Harding said.
ConsumerMedical Appoints Health Care Expert James K. Foreman to its Board of Directors
Primerica, Inc. Files SEC Form 4, Statement of Changes in Beneficial Ownership of Securities (May. 19, 2017)
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News