Commenting on the letter today, ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said:

“It is astonishing that after James Hardie has been through all of the Jackson Inquiry of New South Wales that the company would still be sending letters out to suppliers in the building industry, making claims that were patently off the mark.

The letter seeks to defend the company’s record on asbestos and appears to be a direct response to pressure on James Hardie as a result of the consumer boycotts.

The letter includes the following statement that is misleading about the company’s role in asbestos manufacture and admits to liability for only ‘around 15 per cent of future claims’ when it is known that James Hardie dominated the Australian market for asbestos cement products, with a market share of up to 90 per cent.

The letter states:
"Former James Hardie group subsidiaries, Amaba and Amaca, are two of around 150 defendants who are brought into legal process by claimants. It has been estimated that they will be liable for around 15 per cent of future claims in the Australian environment."

In fact, Peter Macdonald, the CEO of James Hardie was cross examined about that issue in the Jackson Inquiry, and conceded that the number of claims against Hardies are substantially higher than the number of claims against any other defendant. In fact, the uncontradicted evidence in the Jackson Inquiry, drawn to Mr MacDonald's attention during cross examination on 4 June 2004, is that Hardies is now implicated in more than 40% of the claims brought by victims in the NSW Dust Diseases Tribunal of NSW.

The James Hardie letter says that it phased out the use of blue asbestos once the link with mesothelioma was "firmly established", and that it phased out the use of asbestos altogether well before the Government finally banned it last year.

But it doesn't say that James Hardie companies continued to manufacture asbestos products for many decades after health risks were clear.

The ACTU wrote to James Hardie last week to demand the company withdraw the letter or face possible proceedings in the Federal Court. The company's General Manager in Australia, James Chilcoff has written back to defend suggestions the letter is false and misleading but has agreed to stop further distribution of the letter.

James Hardie should end the spin and stop engaging in this superficial marketing exercise. The company should square up to its responsibilities, be honest with the community, tell them the truth, and fulfil their responsibilities to the victims of its deadly asbestos products.”