Alliance Fights ASARCO Pollution in Arizona

Hayden, Arizona, population 900, is a mining town 90 miles southeast of Phoenix. The American Smelting and Refining Company, Inc., or Asarco, dominates the town with its copper mining operations and smelter and the economic lives of residents revolve around it. In this and several other mining towns in Arizona’s Copper Basin, you either work for the company, or you work for the local government, which receives the bulk of its taxes from Asarco.

But times are not good for ASARCO employees. The company has spent much of the last year demanding deep cuts in wages and benefits from workers in Arizona and Texas, despite a recent run-up in copper prices. Workers—represented by the United Steelworkers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Union of Operating Engineers—have been without contracts since July 2004. The USW represents approximately 1,500 Asarco employees.

FOUL AIR

At the same time, Asarco is one of the worst polluters in Arizona and in the country. The U.S. EPA recently released its 2004 Toxics Release Inventory Report, which determined that Asarco’s Hayden Smelter was the second worst toxic chemical emitter in the state. Every year it spews tons of lead, arsenic and copper compounds into the air and land.

Worse, the health effects of all that pollution are frightening. Asarco had been a defendant in a 2002 class-action suit, which was filed by current and former residents of Hayden, Winkelman, Kearny and Riverside. The litigation asserted that the company’s mining and smelting operations have released “significant amounts of pollutants and heavy metals into the environment, resulting in personal injury and property damage” to the residents of Gila and Pina counties. Government studies show the cancer rate in Hayden is 50 percent higher than in Phoenix.

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In April, Asarco workers and environmentalists spent a weekend in Tucson at a forum sponsored by the Public Health Institute (PHI) of New York. The session aimed to find common ground between workers and environmentalists – and to turn knowledge about the company’s poor labor and environmental behavior into action on social, economic and health problems faced by residents and workers.

“Our Union initiated this effort to build a strong coalition of community leaders, environmentalists and union members,” said Terry Bonds, Steelworkers District 12 Director. “The purpose is to work together in the Copper Basin communities to assure our families, and especially our children, are safe from environmental hazards.”

CLEANING UP

Following the meeting, Roger Featherstone, Southwest Circuit Rider for Westerners for Responsible Mining said, “It is clear after this meeting that labor, community and conservationists all share common ground in a clean Arizona. Now we have to work together to clean up the mess.”

The training program focused on national policies, as well as the well-documented impacts of pollution from Asarco mining operations.

“The environmental information presented at the conference was totally different than what the company tells at their annual environmental training,” added Ken Larkin, Unit Chair of USW local 937 who works at Asarco’s Silver Bell mine.

Citing the need for working together, Ray Dreggors of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local union 570 said, “There is definitely a need for a coalition between unions and groups that are dedicated to making corporations responsible for their actions.”

HAND IN HAND

Environmentalists at the PHI workshop felt the same way. “The Sierra Club and Steelworkers agree that environmental stewardship and economic growth go hand in hand,” said Mariana Chew, Sierra Club’s Conservation Organizer from El Paso, Texas. “We will challenge the myth that our country must choose between economic prosperity and the prudent preservation, conservation and restoration of our national environmental treasures.”

“We continue to unite our efforts to identify and confront irresponsible behavior and acts that threaten the legacy of quality natural resources, endanger workers and jeopardize the health of surrounding communities.”

As part of the Steelworkers’ fight-back effort, the union issued a statement in mid-May condemning Asarco for suing residents of two small Arizona towns in an attempt to deny them the right to hold the company accountable in court for harmful effects of pollution.

Asarco supports its case by citing a passage from a 1912 deed that was written when Hayden, AZ was owned by Ray Consolidated. The deed allegedly granted Asarco the right to discharge a limitless amount of “smoke, dust, fumes and other deleterious matter” into the town from its Hayden smelter, without the threat of being held responsible for any damages caused.

Asarco also supports its case by noting that its copper operations in the area predated the towns of Hayden and nearby Winkelman. In an amended complaint filed May 6, 2005 in Arizona Superior Court for Gila County, Asarco states that because pollution from these operations was “obvious,” people who settled next to the operations should be barred from seeking relief in court for health effects or property damage caused by it.

“I knew that Asarco was desperate to escape responsibility for its legacy of pollution, but this marks a new low,” said USW Sub-District Director Manuel Armenta, a lifetime Hayden resident. “Citing a nearly century old agreement between two companies to provide legal cover for jeopardizing people’s health is an abuse of our justice system.”

“Asarco’s legal argument of ‘we were here first’ is a slap in the face to the hardworking residents of our communities,” added Armenta.

TAKING A STAND

“Our community, its residents and employees have long been victimized due to past, present and ongoing environmental and chemical exposures. The serious medical issues experienced are the results of the long term effects of such exposures in the workplace and mining community,” said Teresita Olmos, a Hayden resident Asarco named in the suit.

The EPA has identified numerous sites throughout the U.S. where Asarco still has significant environmental cleanup obligations.

“We are supporting efforts to get to the bottom of Asarco’s pollution in Arizona and elsewhere,” said USW Director Terry Bonds. “We will not stand idly by as Asarco attempts to abuse workers, retirees, communities and the environments where it operates.”

The Tucson alliance-building workshops used PHI’s Small Group Activity Method, which puts the learner at the center of the workshop. Participants work together to solve real-life labor and environmental problems, building upon their own skills and experiences. PHI training inevitably leads to discussion of collaborations and possible partnerships among participants.

For more information or to request PHI training with your union or organization, call (917) 606-0511 or visit www. greenlabor.org/education.asp.