Catherwood LibraryILR School

In what officials are calling the most highly-attended public meeting on the North Fork of Long Island, NY, over 600 area residents expressed serious concerns over their safety as the Department of Homeland Security prepares to take over the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center amid a six-month strike by maintenance and support workers (see WIT for Sep. 19, 2002). Perhaps best known to many as a potential vacation spot for Dr. Hannibal Lector in the movie "Silence of the Lambs," the five-decade-old Department of Agriculture facility has more recently gained notoriety for what many view as a green-light from management on the union-busting attempts of its Maryland-based support contractor LB&B Associates. At least one security breach and several accidents jeopardizing biological containment have occurred since the contractor began bringing in often untrained replacements, and the possibility of a switch from animal diseases to incurable human diseases when the Department of Homeland Security takes over on June 1 has done little to allay residents' fears.