Boilermakers Local Lodge No. 169 · Allen Park, MI

Union: International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers & Helpers (IBB) Local Lodge Number: 169 Hall Address: 1755 Fairlane Drive, Allen Park, MI 48101 AFL-CIO Affiliated Jurisdiction: Greater Detroit metropolitan area and Southeast Michigan industrial corridor — including Detroit, Dearborn, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Flint, Lansing, Saginaw, Bay City, Pontiac, Warren, Sterling Heights, and the broader Michigan automotive, steel, chemical, and utility power-generation industrial base

Local 169 Trade Work and Jurisdictional Coverage

Boilermakers Local Lodge 169 dispatches journeyman boilermakers, welders, apprentices, and field-construction crews to industrial work sites across the jurisdiction. Documented jurisdictional trade work includes:

  • Power plant boiler construction, repair, retubing, and tear-down — utility-scale and industrial boilers at coal-fired, gas-fired, and combined-cycle power generating stations
  • Refinery boiler and pressure-vessel work — process heaters, recovery boilers, and refinery turnaround / outage work
  • Industrial boiler installation and maintenance at steel mills, breweries, food processors, paper mills, chemical plants, automotive plants, and railroad maintenance facilities
  • Pressure-vessel fabrication and shop work at fabrication shops serving the broader regional industrial base
  • Welding, plate work, structural steel, blacksmithing, and forge work under IBB jurisdiction

Asbestos Exposure for Local 169 Boilermakers — Documented Pathways

Per publicly filed allegations in U.S. asbestos litigation, Boilermakers Local 169 members allegedly worked alongside (and after) Heat & Frost Insulators applying and removing asbestos-bearing pipe insulation, block insulation, mud insulation, cloth, paper, and gaskets during boiler-room construction and turnaround work throughout the 1940s-1980s asbestos era. Specific Local 169 trade-work exposure pathways allegedly included:

  • Boiler tube replacement and retubing — handling asbestos-bearing tube-sheet gaskets, asbestos block insulation removed from boiler exteriors, and asbestos-rope packing at boiler doors and access ports
  • Pressure-vessel welding and burning — working around and through asbestos pipe insulation, asbestos rope, and asbestos cloth used to wrap and protect pipes during cutting and welding operations
  • Furnace and combustion-chamber tear-down — exposure to asbestos refractory blanket, asbestos cement, asbestos-bearing gaskets, and asbestos cloth removed during furnace teardown
  • Heat-exchanger and condenser overhaul — handling asbestos gaskets at tube-sheet flanges, asbestos rope at manhole covers, and asbestos-paper-faced insulating board
  • Power-plant outage / turnaround work — concentrated multi-week exposure to asbestos materials at boiler-room and turbine-deck work zones
  • Refinery turnaround work — process-heater dismantling, recovery-boiler overhaul, and pressure-vessel servicing
  • Asbestos-bearing rope and gland packing — handling at flange, valve, and pressure-fitting interfaces throughout boiler-room work

Documented Asbestos-Bearing Materials Encountered

  • Asbestos pipe insulation and block insulation (Johns-Manville, Owens Corning Kaylo, Pittsburgh Corning Unibestos, Eagle-Picher, Armstrong Cork, H.K. Porter, Philip Carey)
  • Asbestos cement insulation and “mud” (Insulag, Kaylo Cement, Eagle 66)
  • Asbestos-bearing gaskets at boiler flanges, manhole covers, tube-sheet interfaces (Garlock, John Crane, Anchor Packing, Klinger, Flexitallic)
  • Asbestos rope and gland packing — boiler door rope, valve packing, gland-sealing applications
  • Asbestos cloth and asbestos blanket — welder blankets, pipe wrap, fire-blanket protection during burning operations
  • Asbestos refractory and furnace cement — boiler combustion-chamber and furnace-wall applications
  • Asbestos-paper-faced insulating board — gauge-panel and control-cabinet barriers

Michigan Industrial Sites Likely Served by Local 169

Documented Michigan industrial facilities where Local 169 boilermakers allegedly performed boiler-room and pressure-vessel work include:

  • Ford Rouge Plant Dearborn — largest integrated U.S. automotive complex (steel mill, power plant, automotive assembly boiler-room and pressure-vessel work)
  • GM Hamtramck / Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly — automotive in-plant boiler rooms
  • Chrysler Highland Park / Jefferson North / Sterling Heights Assembly — automotive in-plant boiler rooms
  • GM Flint plants (Buick City, Delco-Remy, AC Delco) — automotive in-plant boiler rooms
  • Dow Chemical Midland — large chemical-industry boiler-room and recovery-boiler work
  • U.S. Steel Great Lakes Works Ecorse / River Rouge — integrated steel mill boiler rooms
  • Westinghouse / ABB Detroit transformer plant — power transformer work
  • Marathon Detroit refinery — petrochemical boiler-room and process-heater work
  • Square D Madison Heights — regional assembly plant boiler-room work
  • Whirlpool Benton Harbor — appliance manufacturing boiler rooms
  • DTE Energy / Consumers Energy coal-fired power plants — Monroe, Belle River, St. Clair, Karn, Campbell

For documented facility-level exposure histories at these and other Michigan industrial sites, see michiganmesothelioma.com .

Industrial Substation and Transformer Crosswalk

Boilermaker Local 169 members working in boiler rooms allegedly also encountered asbestos-bearing electrical-distribution components — phenolic spacers, Westinghouse Micarta laminate, Bakelite-type laminate, asbestos gaskets, and phenolic-asbestos bushings — at power plant and industrial substation transformers and switchgear adjacent to boiler-room work zones. See:

Retiree Club

Retiree club information for Local 169 has not yet been confirmed. If you are an officer or member of the Local 169 retiree club and would like your group’s contact information listed here, contact us at [email protected] .

Occupational Disease Resources

Boilermakers active during the period from approximately 1940 through the early 1980s were routinely exposed to asbestos-containing pipe insulation, block insulation, refractory cement, gaskets, rope packing, cloth, and joint compound at industrial and commercial boiler-room jobsites.

Conditions associated with this exposure include mesothelioma, asbestosis, asbestos-related lung cancer, and pleural disease. These conditions can have latency periods of 20–50 years and may not appear until decades after exposure ended.

Resources:

If you or a family member worked as a Boilermaker dispatched by Local 169 to Michigan industrial facilities — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related disease — you may have legal rights. Asbestos-related diseases can develop silently for 20, 30, or even 40 years after initial exposure.

Free, confidential case evaluation with experience handling Michigan cases: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 237-3332

All consultations are free. No fee unless a financial recovery is made on your behalf.

This page is an independent reference. It is not affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers or Local Lodge 169. Information reflects publicly filed asbestos litigation, federal regulatory records, and industry archives, and does not constitute a finding of fact or liability with respect to any specific employer, manufacturer, supplier, or contractor.