Agency probing laborers' claims

Several mechanics hired to work at Fort Drum last month by a Kentucky contractor now say they suffer form a variety of health ailments as the state attorney general's office has announced it will investigate whether the company misled and abused its workers.

Former employees of M&E Technical Services have told the Times they came down with the symptoms after having spent up to three weeks up-armoring Army tactical vehicles for the 3rd Brigade's deployment to Afghanistan.

"We're all spittin' up this green-white nasty milky stuff," Ronald J. "Jody" Dancause said.

A large number of workers were promised six months of steady employment, only to find themselves unemployed within three weeks, some of the employees have said. To add to their frustrations, they also find themselves sick with no means of paying for treatment.

Mr. Dancause's son, Jason, said he has the same symptoms, which he blames on the old paint removed from the trucks along with the new paint that replaced it. The old paint had to be heated up with a torch, causing paint fumes to spread over the working areas, before it could be sanded off.

Employees who were interviewed said the company did not issue nor require the use of breathing masks during painting.

"They told us the paint was nontoxic," Mr. Dancause said, "but the labels said 'toxic' right on the can."

Of the four people on his crew, three of them are sick, he said, the lone exception being a person he described as a lax worker who kept his distance from the work area.

When he approached a company supervisor about his crew's ill health, Mr. Dancause said, he was told it was "just a bug" and to keep working.

"It seems kind of ironic that everybody has the same symptoms," he said, which he described as difficulty breathing, fatigue and "bringing up stuff" from the lungs.

Workers also complained of infections from cuts and scrapes that took an unusually long time to heal.

Mr. Dancause said he received a deep cut on his thumb the first day on the job, nearly three weeks ago, that has not healed. "It's still bleeding," he said.

He said that the company provided no first aid kits on the premises and that officials assured them the trucks, previously used in deployments, had been steam-cleaned inside and out.

Mr. Dancause finds himself sick with no health benefits, having given up his disability benefits to take what was promised to be a four-year job, he said.

Unlike many others who say they were fired without warning, Mr. Dancause said he had to quit after less than a week because of the injury to his hand.

Jason Dancause, meanwhile, said he had quit his job at the Losurdo Foods cheese plant in Heuvelton because he thought he'd be making 21/2 times as much money. He said he cannot return to his old job now because he resigned on such short notice.

The state attorney general's office Thursday announced that it has launched an investigation into the matter.

Anyone with information about the alleged actions of METS can call the attorney general's regional office in Watertown at 785-2444.

Times staff writer Brian Kelly contributed to this report.