OHIO WORKERS Edwards extends party's support

Kerry expressed his commitment to the workers in a letter.
PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- Workers from a former nuclear weapons plant said they believe John Kerry would do more than President Bush to protect their pensions and get sick workers speedier compensation under a federal program.
Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards on Thursday repeated the ticket's pledge of support for maintaining the plant, now on cold standby, and for a planned uranium recycling plant.
"We're also going to make sure the workers who've been sick get the help they need," he told about 75 supporters from various unions in a stop on the way to another revival-style rally in Portsmouth, an Ohio River city Bush visited last week.
The Energy Department runs a compensation program that has paid out just $700,000 of the $95 million it has received from Congress for sick workers at 35 Ohio sites including the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. The Bush administration has blocked bipartisan proposals to move the program to the Labor Department, saying it would crate delays instead of solving them.
Kerry's commitment
Kerry sent the plant workers' union a letter last week committing to the switch.
"We don't have commitment from Bush," said Chuck Wiltshire, a 32-year worker at the plant and the union's site representative.
Wiltshire said Bush did keep his promise from 2000 to keep the former weapons plant on cold standby, meaning that it could start processing uranium again instead of being dismantled.
But he and other workers are worried Bush would not stop next year's scheduled expiration of the program's screening component that allows early detection of any cancer or other health problems arising from radiation and chemical exposure.
"We're still finding chemicals today we were exposed to that we didn't know about," said David Simpson, of Jackson, who worked at Piketon for 24 years.
Workers also said they're worried their pension benefits won't transfer if they leave the idled plant for the new one.
Bush's visit
Bush met with a group of sick workers when he was in Portsmouth last week and said he's committed to supporting the site and the workers, campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said. The campaign can't comment on some of the workers' concerns because they are handled by the Energy Department, he said.
"The Kerry campaign never resists the urge to play politics with important issues like this," Madden said.
A decidedly blue-collar crowd, including painters whomping banger sticks imprinted with their union logo, packed a square and most of several Portsmouth blocks on Edwards' second day in the region.
Southeast Ohio went mainly for Bush in 2000, except for union-heavy Belmont County and Athens County, home to Ohio University. But the region supported President Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
Edwards, a multimillionaire attorney who emphasizes his humble beginnings as a mill worker's son, worked up the crowds with call-and-response questions about whether they want a president who stands for "big oil companies ... big drug companies ... big insurance companies."
He said Kerry would allow importing lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and use the government's volume buying power to lower drug costs.
Attacks Cheney
He accused Vice President Dick Cheney of belittling the plight of people working for lower wages and paying more for health insurance. Edwards described a recent interview in which Cheney said the economy wasn't so bad as the labor numbers show because people sell things in Internet auctions.
"When we count the bake sales and lemonade stands, we'll have a roaring economy," Edwards said.
He also responded to the Bush campaign's main knock on Kerry, accusing the Massachusetts senator of being soft on terrorism.
"John will actually do the hard work of leading alliances around the world," Edwards said. "We'll do what must be done to keep the American people safe, and we're going to restore the image of America we all know and love."