OPEN LETER TO SAMUEL J. PALMISANO --
IBM CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, & CEO
You hold all the cards, including the two Jokers !
So, do the right thing.
You have the blood of loyal IBMeers on your hands.
Wash the blood off by doing the right thing.
Let that be your Retirement Swan Song.
There are thousands of IBM employees and family members
who were exposed to harsh industrial chemicals at IBM. They
have received neither apology or compensation for their
injuries or diseases.
And, that’s not news to you.
So, do the right thing.
And by the way, while you are making amends, please explain
to the US Congress and the American public why you and so
many high ranking IBM execs and Board members have been
rapidly selling off your IBM stock shares.
Now, back to the subject at hand --
A WIDOW’S WISH LIST
1. International Business Machines (IBM) will establish a wide spread
public awareness campaign directed at persons who have worked around
industrial grade chemicals during the last 40 years. This campaign would
last at least 5 years. IBM's campaign would educate and encourage those
individuals to take a cancer screening blood test or equivalent medical tests,
if such are accurate. In the event that the individual cannot afford the tests,
IBM will offer some form of financial assistance/counseling to enable and
encourage all affected individuals to take the medical tests.
This public awareness campaign could be patterned after the ongoing
anti-smoking and responsible drinking campaigns of the tobacco and
alcoholic beverages industries. IBM's campaign should include announcements in multiple languages, and should be disseminated in the press, over the airways, on billboards, on IBM's Internet site, and in all
other places where it is likely to attract the attention of a broad spectrum of the general public and health care community.
IBM is encouraged to seek or establish the cooperation, participation, and/or
some financial participation of other employers, government agencies, etc.
But the primary responsibility for the coordination and fulfillment of this
effort would be borne by IBM.
FYI - The late Philip J. Bailey. Jr.'s multiple myeloma was detected by a
blood test a year before there were apparent physical symptoms. That gave
us our last "doctor/hospital free" year. Our extended family used that "extra"
time to prep ourselves, as best we could, for the glum months that awaited us.
IBM’s enactment of the above recommendation would offer that same gift of
time to countless others and their loved ones.
2. IBM will offer "in lieu of" settlement awards to those current and former
IBM employees and their family members who qualify for such awards but
for the existence of time bars or other statutes of limitation, if:
a. They worked at IBM's manufacturing sites in jobs that exposed them to
industrial grade chemicals; and,
b. The IBM employee or/off-spring(s)/family member(s) suffered or experienced diseases and disabilities similar to those diseases and disabilities suffered or experienced by compensated current or former IBM employees and/or their off-spring(s)/family member(s).
IBM will make every effort to identify and contact such persons or their next
of kin.
FYI - The medical bills and pain and suffering are just as real for persons who
had no reason to connect their diseases, disabilities, or family members’ deaths to on-the-job chemical exposure at IBM’s manufacturing plants.
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