Asbestos Workers Union

The Asbestos Workers Union is the common name for the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, a North American labor union representing insulators, laggers, and pipecoverers. Members historically worked daily with asbestos-containing thermal insulation and suffered disproportionately high rates of mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. The union dropped "Asbestos" from its formal name in 2002, but the term remains widely used in medical, legal, and historical records.

Origin

The union traces its roots to 1903, when locals of salamander workers and pipe coverers organized under the American Federation of Labor. It was long known as the International Association of Heat, Frost and Asbestos Workers before dropping "Asbestos" from its name in 2002 to reflect the industry's shift to safer insulation materials, though many older members and records still use the original name.

Significance in Asbestos Context

Membership records, work dispatch slips, pension records, and local union histories from the Asbestos Workers Union are among the most powerful evidence available to prove occupational asbestos exposure. The union itself was central to one of the most important early studies of asbestos disease, Dr. Irving Selikoff's landmark research at Mount Sinai in the 1960s, which followed New York and New Jersey insulators (Locals 12 and 32) and definitively linked their work to mesothelioma and lung cancer. If you or a family member belonged to this union, your local hall may still have records identifying the specific job sites, contractors, and time periods worked, information that can directly link exposure to particular manufacturers' asbestos-containing products and the premises owners who used them.

Example Sentence

His attorney requested his father's dispatch records from the Asbestos Workers Union Local 14 to identify which refineries and power plants he had been sent to during the 1960s and 1970s.

Related Terms

Insulator, Selikoff Study, Occupational Exposure, Pipecovering, Thermal Insulation, Union Records

Notes

• Contact the relevant Heat and Frost Insulators local (often identifiable by city or region, e.g., Local 12 NYC, Local 5 Philadelphia) to request dispatch records, work history, and pension service credits showing employers and job sites.
• Preserve any union cards, pension statements, withdrawal cards, apprenticeship records, or retiree association newsletters. These can establish trade, dates, and locals worked out of.
• Ask family members about which contractors the worker was dispatched to (e.g., Owens-Corning, Johns-Manville, Armstrong Contracting, Pittsburgh Corning) and which industrial sites (refineries, shipyards, power plants, paper mills), since each represents a potential defendant or trust claim.
• If the worker was a member of Locals 12, 32, or other Selikoff cohort locals, ask your attorney whether their name appears in the Mount Sinai longitudinal study rosters, which can corroborate exposure history.
• The union has its own health-screening and member assistance resources; surviving members and widows may also be eligible for pension and welfare fund benefits separate from any legal claim.