Breathing Uneasy?: Arkansas Workers v. Georgia-Pacific

It`s a worry James Woods says he comes face-to-face with everyday. "There`s fibers literally all over the face shields, our safety glasses," Woods explains. "We take them off, clean them off with our shirt-tails, put them back on and we go on again." For years, Woods and other workers at the Georgia-Pacific resin plant in Crossett claim it was much worse. They say the company never gave them the protective gear they needed to stay safe around asbestos. Even more disturbing, Woods says, is the claim managers never even told him and others they were working with the dangerous fibers. "We`d get a grinder and just grind them off," he says. "Dust was just flying everywhere." They`re serious claims Woods` attorney, environmental lawyer Richard Mays, says deserves a serious lawsuit. "It`s a very disabling disease and it eventually leads up to death, death in a very unpleasant manner," says Mays. In the suit, 65 current and former Georgia-Pacific employees demand the company pay up: ten million dollars to plaintiffs exposed to asbestos, fifty million to those who show signs of asbestos-related diseases. One of those diseases, asbestosis, killed James Woods` grandfather. "If they get down to where I`ve seen people in, a billion dollars wouldn`t touch it," he says. "Your health is not worth that." A spokesperson at Georgia-Pacific headquarters in Atlanta says safety is a top priority. "We take employee safety very, very seriously. It`s a critical piece of our culture and foremost in everything we do," says Georgia-Pacific`s Greg Guest. Georgia-Pacific says the claims will be investigated, but some say the company already knows the answers. "They do know what I know," says attorney Richard Mays. "I`ve looked at their own documents that we`ve obtained, and if they`ve read them, they should know exactly what I know about it... and more I would imagine." Mays says it could be more than a year before the case goes to court, and even longer for those who`ve come in contact with asbestos to find out how serious their problems really are. "In this case, these people have to wait 10 or 15 or 20 years. That`s a long time to have to live with this problem," says Mays. "The fear that one has to live with day-after-day, month-after-month, year-after-year... over a long period of time this disease can progress." James Woods says he won`t be waiting and adds that now he`s taking on a second job: warning workers at other companies to ask questions now, so they won`t face more serious ones in the future. "They need to be aware. Just because these managers tell them what to do they`re not always right," Woods says. "They need to check on their own cause it`s their safety they`ve got to worry about."