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NAVAJO NATION
URANIUM WORKERS RECEIVE
$50,000 COMPENSATION IN WEDNESDAY CEREMONY
[10/10/2001]
SHIPROCK, N.M. -- Five uranium miners or their widows who are
members of the Navajo Nation were presented checks for $50,000 in a ceremony on
the Navajo Reservation today in Shiprock, N.M. The checks are lump-sum payments
awarded through a new federal compensation program for nuclear weapons
employees, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
"These checks represent our deep respect for the men and women of the
Navajo Nation who steadily and quietly worked to protect our country, and who,
because of their work, lost their health," said Shelby Hallmark, director of
the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. "Through
this ceremony we wanted to make it clear to everyone on the reservation that
the energy compensation program is real, and that this promise will be kept."
The Labor Department administers benefits under the law.
Several members of the Navajo Nation also participated in the 9 a.m.
ceremony Wednesday: Taylor McKenzie, vice-president of the Navajo Nation; Judy
Secody, executive director of the Navajo Division of Health, and Larry
Martinez, program director for the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers. The event
was held at the Navajo Chapter House in Shiprock, N.M.
A town hall meeting to explain the new law will be held at 7 p.m.
Wednesday in the Shiprock Chapter House. In addition, representatives from the
U.S. Labor Department's district office in Denver and the joint Labor/Energy
Department resource center in Espanola, N.M., will be available at the Shiprock
Chapter House Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning to help uranium miners
or survivors of miners who need help completing claim forms.
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