The four immigrants who joined Menendez were fired last year by Benjamin H. Realty, a New Jersey apartment company, during a union organizing drive by the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA). They told Salon that before their firings, the company had directed them to do unsafe work. “The worst thing was the asbestos,” said Isaac Hernandez. He said he was “100% breathing this stuff in” in a tight crawl space without warning or proper equipment, and “we went with our clothes home, so not only were we exposed – our families were exposed.”

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