PAGE 8 | April 19, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
BUILDING COMMUNITY
...Asbestos
Union ‘super heroes’ turn out for MDA bowl
From Page 1
Two “Super Hero” teams from NALC Salem Branch 347 bowled in full costume. Team members included Branch
347 President Valerie Castillo, David and Felicia Covey, Michael Moore, Yania, Yahaira and Yuliana Valazquez,
Matti Wiengard, and Pietro Forgia. Wiengard and Forgia are German exchange students living with Castillo.
At the 30th annual Labor
Bowl for the Muscular Dys-
trophy Association, a record
139 bowlers representing
nine union-sponsored teams
raised $8,441 March 31 at
KingPins Family Entertain-
ment Center in Beaverton.
That brought the local labor
community’s total contribu-
tion to MDA to $400,560.
Money is collected through a
silent auction and pledges to
bowlers.
The money raised buys
wheelchairs and braces for
children with muscular dys-
trophy, helps them attend a
summer camp, and pays for
research. Muscular dystrophy
is a hereditary condition
marked by a progressive weak-
ening and wasting of the mus-
cles over time.
National Association of
Letter Carriers (NALC)
Branch 82 sponsors the event,
with promotional help from
the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council.
This year’s top fundraiser
was Mike O’Conner, a mem-
ber of NALC Branch 82. He
raised $1,075.
Unions represented at this
year’s event were NALC
Branch 82, NALC Salem
Branch 347, Oregon School
Employees Association
Beaverton Chapter 48 and
Chapter 6732, IATSE Local
28, Machinists Lodges 63 and
1005, United Food and Com-
mercial Workers Local 555,
IBEW Local 89, and NW Pri-
ority Credit Union.
The top bowlers of the day
were Kevin Bonnin of NALC
Branch 82 and Jennifer Gen-
ther of Machinists Lodge 63.
suffocate.”
Grimberg had been an active
28-year member of Plumbers
Local 51 (which later merged
into today’s Local 290). He’d
joined the union after serving in
the army in Korea. At work he
often made a fire retardant paste
containing asbestos to put on
boiler pipes. He would come
home covered in the white dust.
“I remember my mom brush-
ing him off in the driveway,”
Samuelson says.
The federal government first
began restricting the use of as-
bestos in 1973. Leaders of the as-
bestos industry had known for
many years that their products
were dangerous, but hid those
dangers from the workers who
handled them. Asbestos-related
diseases take decades to develop.
In 2005, at the suggestion of a
lawyer, Samuelson and a busload
of union members from Local
290 went to Salem to try to
change Oregon’s statute of limi-
tations to make it easier for sur-
vivors to sue the makers of as-
bestos products. Their bill failed.
But soon thereafter, Samuel-
son heard about the Asbestos
Disease Awareness Organiza-
tion—an all-volunteer group
founded by an asbestos widow,
Linda Reinstein. Samuelson de-
cided to increase her own aware-
ness, and attended its annual
conference in 2009.
“There were other people like
me. Other daughters. Spouses. It
was a huge awakening,”
Samuelson said. “I used to think
this was just something I
couldn’t pronounce that my dad
died of, and I didn’t know any-
body else that died of it. Then I
saw that it was really a huge
problem.”
Samuelson started volunteer-
ing with the group, telling her
family’s story to civic organiza-
tions, and visiting her elected
representatives to push them to
do more to protect workers and
their families from asbestos.
Most asbestos-related prod-
ucts and materials have been
banned in the United States since
the 1970s. Yet the rate of as-
bestos-related deaths is continu-
ing to rise, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control —
from 2,479 in 1999 to 2,579 in
2015. Part of the problem is that
asbestos sticks around; it’s in in-
sulation and other products in
homes built before the 1980s.
And the use of asbestos still
hasn’t been banned entirely in
the United States.
Oregon’s U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley and U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici have introduced a bill
to ban use of asbestos entirely.
Passing it is a top priority for the
Asbestos Disease Awareness Or-
ganization. For Samuelson and
the group’s other volunteers, it’s
personal.
“If we don’t speak up and do
something, if we don’t collec-
tively get people’s attention, if
we don’t ban a substance that we
know kills people, more people
are going to die like my dad,”
Samuelson said.