May 18, 1979 - Karen Silkwood verdict
May 18, 2018
admin

As reported by PEACEbuttons.INFO:

Today in Peace and Justice History

A Publication of PEACEbuttons.INFO

May 18, 1979

A jury in a federal court in Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee established a company's responsibility for damage to the health of a worker in the nuclear [weapons] industry.

Karen Silkwood worked for the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation, at their Cimmarron, [Oklahoma] plant, where plutonium was manufactured.

Silkwood had become the first female member of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers bargaining committee, focusing on worker safety issues, but had suffered radiation exposure in a series of unexplained incidents.

The jury in judge Frank G. Theis's court awarded her estate $505,000 in actual damages, and $10 million punitive damages.

She had died in a [very suspicious] car accident on her way to a meeting with a New York Times reporter five years earlier.

Karen Silkwood remembered.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision and the award.

View this entry on PEACEbuttons.INFO website.

Update on May 18, 2018 by Registered Commenteradmin

On November 13, 2014, Beyond Nuclear commemorated the 40th year since Karen Silkwood's very suspicous death and probable homicide. See more here.

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).
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