GE workers seek closure
Information sessions on workers compensation health claims by former General Electric workers continue today, tomorrow
Jim Dufresne is sick of going to funerals for men he worked with years ago at the General Electric plant in Peterborough.
Dufresne, 70, worked at GE for 42 years.
He started at age 16, enameling steel parts. Today he has cancer: it’s in his prostate and there’s also a spot on his lung.
That’s pretty common for GE retirees, he says. Dufresne said he attended eight funerals for former co-workers last year, all of whom died of cancer.
He says it’s because of the carcinogenic chemicals that workers handled regularly, at GE.
Managers at the plant never said these chemicals were dangerous, Dufresne said.
He said he was once working with beryllium – a metal - and asked his boss whether it was toxic.
Beryllium can cause damage to lungs when it’s inhaled; it has been linked to lung cancer. But Dufresne said his boss told him it was harmless.
“He said, ‘You don’t have to worry about beryllium. You could eat a beryllium sandwich,’” Dufresne said. “That’s how much they cared.”
Dufresne was at an information session for former GE employees at the Naval Association, Tuesday afternoon.
The idea is to give former employees and their families more information about Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claims related to hazardous material exposure at the plant.
The session was scheduled on Tuesday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.; in the first three hours, 70 people attended.
The sessions will continue again on Wednesday (1 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and Thursday (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.). People can walk in - no appointments are necessary.
The idea is to allow former employees who’ve already made a claim with WSIB to receive an update, or for those considering making a claim to learn more.
Dufresne had a chance to ask his questions on Tuesday: There were representatives there from WSIB and also from Unifor (the union at GE) and the Ministry of Labour.
People arrived at Tuesday’s session with lots of official documents. Some cried, and many swapped stories with fellow retirees.
One protester, wearing a grim reaper costume, had to be escorted from the building after he interrupted a WSIB representative’s presentation.
The reaper spoke in a garbled, disguised voice: “It’s peaceful! Peaceful!” he exclaimed, as he was being escorted out.
Armando Fatigati, executive director of case management for WSIB, said they weren’t handing out cheques Tuesday.
They don’t do that, he said – instead, they cover health care, or offer wage loss benefits. Widows of GE workers can apply for similar benefits, he said.
“We have comparable benefits for survivors, if a claim is allowed,” he said. “But it’s not a settlement system.”
Bill Woodbeck, 84, is the chairman of GE’s retirees’ group.
He said a similar info session was held in 2004, at the Evinrude Centre. At that time, 200 claims were filed to WSIB – and of those, 63 are still being processed.
Some widows got money, he said. One told him confidentially that she received $1 million.
“It’s big cash bundles they got,” Woodbeck said.
One widow of a worker was there because she wants to make a new claim.
She didn’t want to be named for fear that it might jeopardize her chances. She said her husband died of cancer in 2014 at age 62.
He’d worked at GE for 42 years and was a new retiree when he died. He got sick suddenly, was diagnosed with cancer and was dead two weeks later.
She said wasn’t there seeking a monetary settlement on Tuesday.
Instead, she’s looking for answers: How is it that her husband got sick so quickly? Was it related to the carcinogens he worked with daily? She thinks so, but wants to know for sure.
“I need to know, for closure.”