Second Class Action Brought by Comcast Utility Worker Over Verizon’s Lead Cables

The second class action in a little more than two weeks from Comcast front-line workers seeking to hold Verizon accountable for the toxic lead cables they regularly came in contact with when climbing Comcast’s utility poles was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. Unlike the Aug. 23 complaint in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Camden by Greg Bostard, who left his Comcast job in 2019 (see 2308240005), the Pittsburgh plaintiff, Mark Tiger, is still actively employed as a utility worker for Duda Cable Construction, an independent Comcast contractor, said his complaint (docket 2:23-cv-01618). Seeger Weiss and Dwoskin Wasdin attorneys represent Bostard and Tiger in both class actions. Tiger, like Bostard, blasted Verizon for its “profit-driven decision to leave dangerous lead cables in place after they became outdated and obsolete,” in violation of state and federal law, said Tiger’s complaint. The decision “endangered -- and endangers -- utility workers whose work brings them in constant direct physical contact with these lead cables,” it said. Verizon and its predecessor companies “have known about this danger to utility workers for decades, but have made a decision to put profit above people, and to expose thousands of utility workers to dangerous levels of lead,” it said. Utility workers “are uniquely harmed by this misconduct,” alleged Tiger’s complaint. “Their jobs put them in constant contact with these cables and the environmental media which surrounds them,” it said. “They must manhandle these cables to do their jobs,” it said. Verizon’s failure “to properly assess and dispose of the cables and the lead that has leached off the cables into the surrounding environment has caused a public health crisis by unnecessarily exposing individuals in Pennsylvania and other states to toxic lead,” it said. Tiger and his putative class members, as with Bostard’s complaint, demand that Verizon pay for their medical monitoring to catch future lead-related illnesses in their early stages, said his complaint. Verizon provides a health monitoring program, including lead testing, to its own employees but doesn’t presently pay the cost of medical monitoring “for other individuals exposed to lead from their toxic lead-sheathed cables,” it said.