The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) organized
two well-attended online events on Ontario Injured Workers' Day to
celebrate their work and collective strength in fighting for the rights
of injured workers. A vigil was organized by the Women of Inspiration
on the eve of Injured Workers' Day and a
rally on June 1. This year marks 38 years since the first Injured
Workers' Day in 1983, when 3,000 injured workers and their allies
gathered at Queen's Park to make their demands known to a public
inquiry into the compensation system.
For
a second year injured workers were forced to meet online by a pandemic
which has brought to the fore the importance to the entire society of
the fight for safe working conditions for all workers, and for full and
timely compensation for all who are injured or become ill due to their
work.
The Injured Workers' Day online rally June 1 was attended
by more than 176 registered participants, while others joined on
Facebook live. Participants came from many parts of Ontario and some
joined from other provinces and from as far away as Australia.
As
part of the day's activities, prior to the rally injured workers visited
the offices of more than 40 MPPs, postering their doors and windows with
the demands of injured workers for full and just compensation when
injured or made ill at work. A slideshow of the visits was shown at the
rally. The program was enlivened by a rousing song from
Heather Cherron, "Extra, Extra," dealing with the situation of casual
workers, a video produced for the 2020 Injured Workers' Day entitled "Normal Is
Not Good Enough" and messages of solidarity from workers in Australia
marking their second Injured Workers' Day.
Injured workers visit MPPs offices in Mississauga Centre (left) and Thunder Bay
ONIWG President Janet Paterson acted as the MC. In opening the
program she pointed out that injured workers have no interest in
returning to the "business as usual" that existed before the pandemic as
neither the government nor WSIB has fulfilled their responsibility to take
care of workers who were injured or made ill on the job and this
situation
must change. The past year of the pandemic has created a situation
where workers in many sectors have faced the possibility of becoming ill at
work, not with an occupational disease which would take many years to
manifest itself, but as an immediate danger. This brought to the fore
for the whole society the need for all workers to be covered by WSIB,
for workers to exercise their right to refuse unsafe working
conditions, the need for paid sick days, and that migrant workers must
not be forgotten but must have access to the same benefits as other
workers and to proper living conditions.
Merv
King, Coordinator of the United Steelworkers Injured Workers Program
and a member of Timiskaming First Nation in his land acknowledgement
called on people to reflect on who are the keepers of the lands on
which they stand. The fight of the Indigenous peoples and of injured
workers are both for dignity and for justice. He called
for a minute of silence in honour of the 215 children whose unmarked burial site
was found on the grounds of the Kamloops Residential school.
It is customary for a light to be passed to the Injured
Workers’ Day rally from the vigil held by the Women of
Inspiration the night before and this was done, symbolically, by Maryam
Nazemi. She said that one of the
things which workers have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the
importance that all workers be protected, starting with being covered
by the workers compensation system which is not currently the case.
Workers have a right
to healthy and safe working conditions and to leave work each day with
the same health as when they arrived, she concluded.
The president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, Patty Coates,
brought greetings to the rally. She pointed out that the injured
workers movement has strengthened itself and grown despite the
difficulties caused by the pandemic. Sue James from the Peterborough
General Electric Retirees spoke on the question of the fight for the
rights of
workers who have been made ill at work. (See below for her
presentation).
A
portion of the rally, introduced by Sang-Hun Mun of Injured
Workers Action for Justice, was dedicated to the fight of migrant
workers to defend their rights, in particular in the situation of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Thirteen migrant workers have died in Ontario since
the beginning of the pandemic, he pointed out, and the
minimum that is required to defend their right to health and safety at
work is permanent status. He brought a message from one of the
farmworkers who had been injured in Hamstead Heath in a 2012 van
accident that killed ten migrant workers and injured another three as
they returned from work. A second migrant worker who works at a chicken
catcher described the difficult working conditions faced by migrant
agricultural workers -- including travelling to work crowded 13 to 16
in a truck -- which had led to him contracting COVID-19 twice within a
four-month period. He emphasized that the first requirement for migrant
workers to be able to defend their rights was permanent resident
status. As permanent residents, he said, they could demand benefits and
rights in line with those of Canadian workers without facing immediate
deportation for speaking out.
Two nurses addressed the rally, Angela Precanin from the Ontario
Nurses Association and Carolina Jiminez from the Decent Health and Work
Network. Angela spoke out about the thousands of health care workers
infected unnecessarily with COVID-19 due to the lack of PPE and proper
cohorting. Carolina called out the Ford government for its negligent
refusal to institute a minimum of 10 paid sick days with an additional
14 during a health emergency, pointing out that even the paltry three
days the government has now instituted only apply to the period of the
pandemic.
Injured workers visit offices of MPPs for Spadina-Fort York (left) and Dufferin-Caledon
The final speaker, Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario, brought the
rally to an energetic conclusion. He spoke about the difficult
situation his members, many of whom are in health care, had faced over
the past year, with at least a dozen having died of COVID-19. Most of
those who died were black or racialized workers, he stated. The
pandemic has changed our tolerance of racism and our demands for the
future and shown that we are all connected, he said, and when working
people realize
there are far more of us than there are of them and put aside what is
used to divide us there will be no stopping us. Speaking of the WSIB he
said that it must be reclaimed and re-made as a compensation
system, not as an insurance system. This requires first to turf out the
present Ontario government next year but at the same time not to assume
the Liberals will solve the problems, which they had 15 years in office
to do, or that the NDP is the end all and be all. It will be the
activism of injured workers and everyone organizing together that can
bring about real change. Honour and mourn the dead and fight like hell
for the living!
This article was published in
June 7, 2021 - No. 54
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08541.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
