Specter pressured to lower amount of proposed asbestos fund

Specter pressured to lower amount of proposed asbestos fund - Asbestos & Mesothelioma News

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information [at] asbestostoday dot comSpecter pressured to lower amount of proposed asbestos fund

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter is reportedly under pressure to scale back his proposal for a $140 Billion privately financed asbestos fund.

The White House has not explicitly endorsed Specter's proposal, and some Republicans and business interests fear its current provisions would be too costly for the defendant companies and insurers who would finance the fund.

News Source: Reuters  |  Published: February 28, 2005  |  Read Full Story Contact an Asbestos and Mesothelioma Attorney, Lawyer, Law Firm Please fill out the form below to contact an attorney. Provide as much information as possible to speed the processing of your inquiry (Only United States residents are eligible). Contact Information   *Are required items. *First Name: *Last Name: Email Address: *Daytime Phone: Evening Phone: *Zip Code: Case Information Have you, or the person you are contacting us on behalf of, been diagnosed with mesothelioma: Yes:   No: Date of diagnosis:

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CITY ROOM; On a Midtown Block, the Big Yellow-Toothed Face of Labor, Times Two

Tourists shuffling out of Grand Central Terminal would be forgiven for wondering what the heck kind of low-rent horror movie about giant rats is being filmed on East 42nd Street. Immobile, fat and grinning with big yellow teeth - yikes!

New Yorkers, of course, will recognize the big inflated pests, familiar sights all over town, wherever a labor union has taken umbrage with the goings-on at the location. The rat may stay an hour or a day or longer, with handy fliers explaining the nature of the dispute. Indeed, the rats are almost counterproductive among natives, who barely bother to look up and notice anymore, as with panhandlers and police sirens and smiling people who want you to stop in the middle of the sidewalk and sign something.

But rarer, far rarer, is the double rat sighting on a single block, as is the case on 42nd Street. Two rats face two different buildings as if they'd planned it that way and carpooled in together, which was not quite the case. The union that owns the rats, Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waste Laborers' Local 78, is protesting the means of asbestos abatement at 60 East 42nd Street and 315 Madison Avenue, which faces 42nd. The rats will be there all week.One of them is 15 feet tall and, like many real rats, nude, his long tail turned up between his legs. The other rat is three feet shorter but nattier, wearing a suit and tie and clutching two big bags of money. They are the whiskered face of labor in New York, like rodent Tom Joads, perched wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, Ma

This week's rat double-billing requires two union men to stand watch all day.

''It's fun,'' said one, Juan Severino, 25, of the South Bronx, who has hauled the rats around for two years. ''You see the reactions of people. Some people hate us because we are disturbing the public. Some people love us. Tourists take pictures.''

Each rat's work day begins at 7 a.m., when 42nd Street is still relatively quiet. Mr. Severino parks his pickup on the curb and hauls out the deflated, folded-up rat, which rises only about knee high. He hooks it up to a fan, which in turn is hooked to a generator, into which he pours gasoline and yanks the start cord. The rat springs to life remarkably quickly, in seconds, and Mr. Severino ties it down to the subway grate on the sidewalk.

For a building's owners, the rat outside is just about as unwelcome as one running around inside.

''They always call the cops,'' Mr. Severino said. ''The first couple days are like that. It's intense.'' Then everybody gets used to one another, sort of like New Yorkers' resignation with, and even affection for, real rats. The big rats are street legal if they stay out of the road and they're not blocking the sidewalk. Mr. Severino said he and his partner pack the rats up around 3:30 p.m. A gallon of gas keeps one inflated for eight hours.

City Room left voice mail messages for the chief executives targeted by the Midtown rats.

The two rats are part of a stable for Local 78. There are two more rats that were perched at addresses in New Jersey on Wednesday, Mr. Severino said. And for those narrow sidewalks where the rats won't fit, the union mounts a coffin with a dummy inside.

Now, to be fair to those who think the rats are in a movie shoot, they might be on to something. A movie about inflated union rats that come to life and lead real rats in a siege of the city and chomp on people with their yellow teeth and wear nice suits and talk like Henry Fonda - yes, we would see that.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTO: Two inflated rats from Local 78 of the Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waste Laborers near Grand Central Terminal this week. (PHOTOGRAPH BY SUZANNE DeCHILLO/THE NEW YORK TIMES)

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