A single case may have thousands of plaintiffs and hundreds of defendants with a settlement value of $600,000,000.00" (Model asbestos case management order, 2005, ABA, p. 15). Potential strengths and weaknesses, what could the group contribute or withhold: These businesses seem unsympathetic to the public, who are alarmed by the dangerous uses of asbestos in everyday life situations and are angry at companies for ignoring the risk. Industries may try to promote new safety measures to forestall likelihood of further lawsuits. These industries have tried (and failed) on numerous occasions to lobby Congress to pass laws to limit damages awarded to plaintiffs in asbestos-related suits in exchange for 'trust funds' that would give smaller compensations to victims and their family (Asbestos legislation, 2009, Asbestos news).

The linkages indicating main conflicts of interests, patterns of cooperation, dependency: While undeniably in conflict with groups wishing for greater limitations on the use of asbestos, these companies can work with regulators to create more stringent safety procedures for workers who do come into contact with the material

Beneficiaries: Consumer protection groups trying to limit use of asbestos and protect future workers

Characteristics: Diverse, spanning from government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to other watchdog groups

Main problems: Diffuse interests and points-of-view -- as an arm of the federal government, the EPA may hesitate to interfere with other branches with divergent interests like the Commerce Department, while consumer action groups may disagree as to the most important aspects of anti-asbestos policies to emphasize

Main needs and wishes, interests, motives, attitudes:...

Congress, the court system has limited the ability of asbestos to be regulated as a hazardous substance as when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned an outright ban on asbestos (Asbestos ban and phase out asbestos ban, 2009, EPA).
The linkages indicating main conflicts of interests, patterns of cooperation, dependency: These groups 'depend' on affected victims to tell their stories and put a human face on the suffering caused by asbestos, but their focus is less on the individual and more upon prohibiting future hazardous exposure, like lobbying for replacement of asbestos in schools and in consumer products. This places them in direct conflict with powerful industry and congressional actors.

Works Cited

Asbestos ban and phase out asbestos ban. (2009). EPA. Retrieved May 12, 2009

http://www.epa.gov/oppt/asbestos/pubs/ban.html

Asbestos exposure and cancer risk. (2009). The National Cancer Institute. Retrieved May 12,

2009 at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/asbestos

Asbestos legislation. (2009). Asbestos news. Retrieved May 12, 2009 at http://www.asbestosnews.com/html/asbestos-legislation.html

Identifying stakeholders. (2009). MIT Retrieved May 12, 2009 at http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/issues-tools/tools/Ident-stakeholders.html

Model asbestos pre-trial case management order. (2005). American Bar Association (ABA).

Retrieved May 12, 2009 at www.abanet.org/leadership/2005/annual/dailyjournal/103.doc