Ira I. Brought to M. D. Burch on Meeting the Asbestos Workers Union's International Officers (1956)

A two-page letter of November 20, 1956, from Ira I. Brought, a Toledo consultant, to M. D. Burch, director of industrial relations at Owens-Corning Fiberglas, reporting on his meeting in Washington with the international officers of the Asbestos Workers Union about the health investigation by several New England locals. The officers told him they had "on several occasions during the past deleted references to the subject from the minutes as published" in the union's journal, but could not keep it out of recent issues. Brought said he "cited to Mr. Sickles and Mr. Hoff the harm that could result from the publication of unsupported rumors."

What it shows

Brought, who wrote that he had "lived intimately with this situation for ten years," saw the revived "health question" as a business threat: "anything that is likely to impede the freeflow of the sale of Fiberglas, is a sales hazard." He warned that the international might give "semi-silent approval" to the locals' health work and urged close ties between branch offices and union business agents so complaints "could be nipped in the bud." He planned to see Hugh Mulligan, the board member with whom he had earlier had a union premium on Fiberglas work rescinded. His later letter to the company's president is Motley document 181.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

I.I. Brought (Ira I. Brought & Associates, consultants in Toledo) letter to M.D. Burch, 11/20/56, re conference with the international officers of the Asbestos Workers Union concerning the health investigation being conducted by several of its locals in the New England area with respect to fiber glass.

Related documents

• John D. Black to W. L. Bowes on Following Up with the Union's International Officers (1956)
• Ira I. Brought to Harold Boeschenstein of Owens-Corning on the Asbestos Workers Union and Asbestosis (1957)

About this copy

This is document 179 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001201 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001202.