Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Expect Democracy: Nuclear Weapons Whistleblower Wins Union Presidency

Congratulations to Ed Bricker! My former Hanford, Washington whistleblower client just got elected President of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1765 in Olympia, Washington.

Now a bus driver, Mr. Bricker was the first whistleblower at the Department of Energy's Hanford, Washington nuclear weapons plant, once operated by Rockwell and Westinghouse. Corporate goons called Ed Bricker a "mole" because he provided information to Rep John Dingell, then-Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its powerful Subcommittee on Invesigations. Interrogating those corporate thugs, goons and gumshoes in days of depositions was truly an honor.

USDOL OSHA investigator John Spear, then Assistant Administrator of oSHA in the Pacific Northwest, found that Bricker had been spied on illegally in retaliation for his protected activity.

Ralph Nader has half a chapter in his book on corporate lawyers about Mr. Bricker's case. (NO CONTEST: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America)(1998).

In 2006, Ed Bricker published a letter defending me in the St. Augustine Record, after I was attacked by then-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER. Earlier, Bricker had defended me on the St. Augustine Record's "Talk of the Town" website, supporting my concerns about our City's illegal dumping. (He was then an environmental regulator for Washington State). As a result, Bricker was attacked unmercifully by the "Anonymice," with one falsely impersoanting Bricker's wife and others making threats.

Congratulations to Ed, Cindy and all the Brickers!

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