40th Anniversary of Injured Workers' Day -- June 1
All Out to Support the Just Demands of Injured Workers and Their Allies for Human-Centred Reforms to Workers' Compensation!
On June 1, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups (ONIWG) will hold its annual Injured Workers' Day rally and march starting at Queen's Park in Toronto at 11:00 am. Some local injured workers' groups will hold actions as well.
This year, June 1 marks the 40th
anniversary of the day in 1983 when injured workers and their
allies converged on the Ontario Legislature where the government
of Bill Davis was holding hearings to prepare attacks on the
injured workers' compensation system. Over 3,500 people came to
address the hearings, forcing the government to hold them on the
lawn of Queen's Park. This resulted in the government backing
down on its main attacks at the time.
Since then, June 1 has been kept as a day of struggle, when injured workers and their allies return to the Legislature to speak out about their conditions and their demands.
Today injured workers and their allies stand second to none as an organized force to affirm their rights, which upholds the rights of all workers to dignity and respect. Today through their local, provincial and national collectives and organizations injured workers and their allies are speaking for themselves about their lived experience and what it tells them is required of a workers' compensation system worthy of the name.
Building up to June 1, ONIWG has published stories from injured workers themselves from different parts of Canada who have worked in different fields. In the videos the workers discuss how they were injured, their experiences, and in particular what the experience of fighting for their rights within the existing workplace compensation regimes has taught them about what changes are required.
They are clear that the existing arrangements consider them as things which are treated as burdens, liars and even criminals in order to facilitate the interests of employers, and governments in their service, who only want to eliminate their responsibilities and use the system to limit what workers can claim while they get paid in the form of rebates using a fraudulent surplus which the board has generated by cutting back on workers' compensation.
The stories show that injured workers, as representatives of the working class of Canada and the world, are nobody's fools. Everyone should listen to what they have to say and join their fight for justice by sharing their demands as demands of the working class as a whole. They are making it clear that they must be empowered to decide the direction of the system, and not those who do not share their experiences and reality. They are standing up for safe and healthy workplaces and have taken up doing their own research and training to ensure they can fight effectively.
Their experiences show them the human-centred reforms which are desperately needed, and by putting them forward they are planting a flag around which they can organize. They want governments to be accountable to the working people. They are honourable Canadian workers who are fighting for the rights of all by fighting for their own rights to compensation and accountability and they must be heard.
On this occasion, ONIWG is putting forward demands for reforms to the existing workers' compensation system in Ontario. They are calling for:
"- Increase injured workers' WSIB [Workplace Safety and Insurance Board] wage loss benefits back to 90 per cent,
"- Stop the damaging recommendations from KPMG,
"- End the WSIB damaging practice of deeming that creates fake jobs, and
"- Show your support for injured workers by joining the rally at Queen's Park, Toronto, 11:00 am!"
Everyone is encouraged to join actions on Injured Workers' Day, June 1, and help to make them a success, and also to share ONIWG's injuredworkersorganize.ca website and the stories there to broaden its reach.
This article was published in
Number 30 - May 31, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10301.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca