Johns-Manville Industrial Relations Managers Meeting Minutes on the Industrial Health Program (1960)

Part of the minutes of a meeting of J-M's industrial relations managers at Absecon, New Jersey, December 4 to 9, 1960: a cover and section H (17 pages) with talks by Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, on the Industrial Health Program, by C. L. Sheckler on "Loss Prevention Control," and by I. H. Sloane on safety and industrial hygiene. Smith presents the health program as a loss prevention program against loss of "Time, Talent and Treasure," adding: "It is perfectly obvious that we are losing Company treasure whenever we have to pay workmen's compensation benefits." He tells the managers that "the total responsibility for administration of the Industrial Hygiene Program rests with the Industrial Relations Manager."

What it shows

Smith uses the Lompoc diatomaceous earth plant as a warning. "We did not have a good operation; it was admittedly dusty; many employees were disabled, but the emphasis was on production and the profit picture," he says, recalling the "Death By Dust" issue of Search Magazine in January 1952 and the seven-month strike that followed. He also describes a Manville plant practice: "We have had employees develop asbestosis or silicosis in our Transite Pipe plant," who were moved to other departments and "worked usefully for several more years," with their eventual compensation charged to the pipe plant. Sheckler, reporting that J-M's out-of-pocket compensation cost for 1959 "exceeded 7 hundred thousand dollars," urges managers to contest invalid claims "vigorously" and to "take an active part in controlling" state benefit legislation through employer groups.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

Minutes of the Industrial Relations Managers' Meeting in Absecon, NJ held 12/4-9/60. Kenneth W. Smith, in oral presentations, discusses labor relations citing the Lompoc strike: "(h)ere we mined, milled and shipped diatomaceous earth, a dust which, . . . if improperly handled, could cause a serious pulmonary disease resulting in total disability. . . . (I)t was admittedly dusty; . . . . the emphasis was on production and the profit picture." He also spoke of employee transfers in the Manville Plant stating: "we have had employees develop asbestosis or silicosis in our Transite Pipe Plant. They have been transferred . . . and have worked usefully for several more years."