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3 August, 2000Dick Cheney, the Republican vice-president candidate, have contributed more than $150,000 to members of Congress who sponsored legislation that would limit the ability of workers to sue companies for asbestos exposure.
U.S.A: Halliburton Co., the giant Dallas-based energy company Dick Cheney will leave to run for vice president, and its subsidiaries have had about 273,300 suits filed against them since 1976 by workers suffering from asbestos-related disease.
At the end of 1999, 107,650 suits for damages were still pending, including 46,400 new suits filed against the corporation last year, according to the firm's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cheney, 59, says he will resign on Aug. 16 to concentrate on the Republican campaign. Halliburton's political action committees and Cheney contributed $494,452 to congressional candidates from 1997 through mid-2000. Of that, $157,500 went to members of Congress who co-sponsored the asbestos legislation, 59 Republicans and four Democrats.
Some citizens groups were critical of the industry's efforts to push the legislation. USAction, a health care consumer group affiliated with organisations including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; the Communication Workers of America, and the Service Employees International Union, opposes the legislation and didn't mince words when asked for its view.
"The Cheney-led Halliburton Co. has been an integral part of an asbestos industry which knowingly poisoned its own workers for years and is still trying to get off the hook. That industry -- which is counting on special treatment from a Bush-Cheney administration -- has publicly vowed that it will be bringing its bailout legislation back to Congress next year," said William McNary, president of USAction.
McNary said Halliburton should have settled its claims with the workers. "Instead, Cheney chose to gamble that federal legislation could be passed to allow his company to escape its responsibility to the people it harmed," McNary said.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
At the end of 1999, 107,650 suits for damages were still pending, including 46,400 new suits filed against the corporation last year, according to the firm's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cheney, 59, says he will resign on Aug. 16 to concentrate on the Republican campaign. Halliburton's political action committees and Cheney contributed $494,452 to congressional candidates from 1997 through mid-2000. Of that, $157,500 went to members of Congress who co-sponsored the asbestos legislation, 59 Republicans and four Democrats.
Some citizens groups were critical of the industry's efforts to push the legislation. USAction, a health care consumer group affiliated with organisations including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; the Communication Workers of America, and the Service Employees International Union, opposes the legislation and didn't mince words when asked for its view.
"The Cheney-led Halliburton Co. has been an integral part of an asbestos industry which knowingly poisoned its own workers for years and is still trying to get off the hook. That industry -- which is counting on special treatment from a Bush-Cheney administration -- has publicly vowed that it will be bringing its bailout legislation back to Congress next year," said William McNary, president of USAction.
McNary said Halliburton should have settled its claims with the workers. "Instead, Cheney chose to gamble that federal legislation could be passed to allow his company to escape its responsibility to the people it harmed," McNary said.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer