About Western Electric Hawthorne Works Cicero Illinois

Facility Overview

  • Location: Cicero, Illinois (western suburb of Chicago), along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal
  • Size: More than 200 acres
  • Construction began: 1905
  • Primary owner: Western Electric Company (manufacturing arm of Bell Telephone System/AT&T)
  • Peak employment: More than 40,000 workers during the 1920s–1930s
  • Closure: 1983
  • Later ownership: Lucent Technologies (after AT&T breakup in 1984)

Products Manufactured at Hawthorne Works

  • Telephone handsets, switchboards, and exchange equipment
  • Military communications equipment (both World Wars)
  • Relays, coils, and precision electrical components
  • Power cables, wiring harnesses, and insulated conductors
  • Radio and early television equipment components
  • Electrical meters and measuring instruments

The facility is also known for the Hawthorne Studies (1924–1932), conducted by Harvard researcher Elton Mayo, which became foundational in organizational behavior research. For thousands of workers now facing asbestos-related diagnoses, the facility carries a far grimmer legacy.

General Equipment at Western Electric Hawthorne Works Cicero Illinois

The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.

Industrial Boilers View crosswalk › Process Piping View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps View crosswalk › Heat Exchangers View crosswalk › Cooling Equipment View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.

No Illinois EPA NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.

Material Categories in Documented Records

The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Western Electric Hawthorne Works Cicero Illinois

Decades of occupational health research and asbestos litigation consistently identify certain trades as carrying the highest risk of asbestos-related disease. If you worked in any of these occupations at Hawthorne Works, Contact a Illinois asbestos attorney immediately—your 5-year filing window may already be running.

Insulators and Insulation Workers

The highest-risk occupational category in asbestos litigation.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 members and other union insulators allegedly applied, maintained, and removed pipe insulation, boiler insulation, and equipment insulation throughout the facility. This work required direct, hands-on manipulation of asbestos-containing materials, including:

  • Cutting preformed calcium silicate pipe insulation** and similar asbestos-containing pipe insulation to length
  • Mixing and troweling asbestos cement finishing products from Philip Carey Manufacturing and other suppliers
  • Removing damaged or deteriorating insulation containing asbestos fiber

Each of these tasks is documented to release high concentrations of airborne asbestos fibers directly into the breathing zone of the worker performing them.

Pipefitters and Steamfitters

Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 members and other union pipefitters worked on miles of steam, condensate, and process piping throughout the facility. They may have been exposed through:

  • Working alongside insulators on pipe systems insulated with calcium silicate pipe insulation**, and similar asbestos-containing products
  • Cutting through or disturbing existing insulated pipe sections
  • Handling gaskets and packing and packing materials on flanged connections and valve stems
  • Routine maintenance and replacement of pipe systems across the complex

Boilermakers

Boilermaker work—opening boiler doors, replacing refractory, removing boiler lagging—may have released asbestos fibers from:

  • and boiler insulation products
  • Asbestos-containing rope, blanket, and cement products from and other manufacturers

Workers present in boiler rooms during maintenance operations may have inhaled released fibers without ever directly handling insulation themselves.

Electricians

Electricians at Hawthorne Works faced asbestos exposure from multiple directions:

  • Older electrical wire and cable throughout the facility allegedly contained asbestos fiber insulation, particularly Thermobestos** and similar products
  • Electrical maintenance and renovation work disturbed asbestos-containing cable insulation
  • Bystander exposure occurred when electricians worked in areas where nearby insulators and maintenance workers were disturbing asbestos-containing materials
  • Cable routing through pipe chases and equipment rooms brought electricians into regular contact with asbestos-containing pipe insulation

Millwrights and Maintenance Mechanics

Millwrights serviced industrial furnaces, ovens, and heat-treating equipment throughout the facility. Their routine tasks included:

  • Replacing furnace gaskets from gaskets and packing and allegedly containing asbestos fiber
  • Repairing high-temperature insulation from, and other manufacturers
  • Overhauling machinery containing asbestos-containing components

Sheet Metal Workers

Sheet metal workers fabricated and installed ductwork, equipment enclosures, and metal components throughout the facility. They allegedly worked alongside insulators and in areas where asbestos-containing materials were regularly disturbed. Sheet metal work often required cutting or working directly adjacent to calcium silicate pipe insulation**, and other asbestos-containing insulation systems.

Production and Assembly Workers: Secondary Exposure

Production workers were not shielded from asbestos contamination simply because their job title had nothing to do with insulation:

  • Maintenance work on steam lines, overhead systems, and structural elements in occupied production areas may have released asbestos fibers from asbestos-containing insulation into shared work spaces
  • Asbestos fibers from calcium silicate pipe insulation**, gaskets and packing, and other asbestos-containing materials settled on surfaces throughout production areas, became re-entrained in air, and were inhaled by workers performing unrelated tasks nearby
  • Published studies of comparable manufacturing environments document elevated rates of asbestos-related disease among workers with no direct handling history
  • Secondary contamination on tools, clothing, and equipment carried fibers throughout the facility

Supervisors and Foremen

Supervisors moved across the entire facility, overseeing work in multiple areas simultaneously. Over long careers at Hawthorne Works, they may have accumulated significant total fiber exposure from dozens of locations and operations where asbestos-containing materials were handled or disturbed.

Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Illinois law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (735 ILCS 5/13-202). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (740 ILCS 180/2). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.

The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.

Practical first steps

  1. Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
  4. Speak with an asbestos attorney with Illinois experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.

Asbestos-Related Diseases

Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.

Mesothelioma

A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.

Asbestosis

A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.

Lung Cancer

Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.

Other Recognized Diseases

Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.

If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.

Data Sources

Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:

If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.