Environmental Justice at Work: The UAW, the War on Cancer, and the Right to Equal Protection from Toxic Hazards in Postwar America

Abstract

During an address to the American Occupational Health Conference in Detroit, Michigan, on April 22, 1980, United Automobile Workers (uaw) president Douglas A. Fraser made a bold announcement. The uaw was declaring “war on workplace cancer” in response to an alarming series of cancer mortality studies conducted among autoworkers by government, company, and union epidemiologists. These studies revealed an “increased proportion of cancer deaths” among “workers in machining operations, foundry workers, and workers in vehicle assembly plants”; the epidemiologists believed those deaths were related to occupational carcinogen exposure. Despite the “current economic situation,” Fraser argued that ambitious cancer screening programs and tougher engineering controls on carcinogens in manufacturing were necessary. General Motors (gm) chief executive Thomas Murphy, who also spoke at the conference, chastised the Detroit News for running “glaring” negative headlines about the studies, but he did not challenge Fraser's assertion. A few months later, gm announced what the New York Times called the “largest cancer-screening program in the history of American industry,” and Chrysler Corporation soon followed with its own program.1