"I Want All of the People Who Have Been Disrespected, Ignored, and Hidden Away to Be Seen, to Be Counted, and to Be Heard!"
The following presentation was made by Liz Garant-Yaremcio at the May Day 2023 Workers' Roundtable held in Windsor, Ontario on April 30, 2023.
On April the 28, those that know
and care pause, reflect, and mourn all the workers that have
been killed on the job or died from work-related diseases.
On May 1, those that know and care, pledge to take action against the many wrongs and injustices that workers are subjected to in their workplaces and their work-related conditions.
June 1 is injured workers' day in Ontario, a historical day where for the last 40 years plus injured workers have been demanding governments listen to their demands.
The problems of the many are not just ignored, they are hidden from view. The suffering is hidden. The injustice is hidden. The deaths are hidden.
These things are hidden not just because they are emotionally difficult, but because the powerful and wealthy do not want to know, and do not want us to know what the truth is.
I know what some of you are thinking: "Here comes another crazy conspiracy theory."
Well, I do not know what to call it, but I do know at least some of the truth. I ought to know. I am one of the literally countless permanently injured workers who are not counted. We have been "deemed" to be back to work and earning as much as we ever did.
Except that is not true. Deeming is
a lie. A legal fiction created by a section of the Workplace Safety and Insurance
Act, Worker's Comp., to cut off or reduce
compensation for our injuries.
Not because we are all better. We are not. Our injuries are permanent.
Not because we are earning as much as we did before. Most of us are not.
We are cut off because money in the pockets of employers is more important than workers' lives and suffering.
And there is more, a lot more to say.
But first, I want to let you know who I am. I do not think that I am all that important, but the compensation board and the government must think I am important, because they sure do not want to talk about me and all the other injured workers like me. So I am going to talk about us.
I used to work in a warehouse that held and managed parts for Chrysler.
I suffered an on the job back injury in 2006. It did not get better, it got worse. I was put on light duty in 2011. My injury is permanent. I cannot do the things that I used to do. I will spare you the details, and just tell you my life is not the same as it was, and never will be.
My workplace is gone, and I have been "deemed" to be earning money that I am not actually earning. But that inconvenient fact is no problem for the Board. Because they are entitled under law to make up a lie about me, cut me off, and close my file. Me and an unknown number of others like me.
The number of permanently injured workers who have been "deemed" right off of the system is unknown. It is unknown, because the Board does not keep count of them. They have saved some money and maybe closed a file, and they sure count that. But what happens to the "deemed" workers? They do not count that.
They do not know because they do
not ask. They choose not to ask about what happens to us. They
do not care about us enough to even be bothered to ask.
And it is not just the so called "deemed" workers they do not ask about.
The Board does not ask how many injured workers commit suicide.
The Board does not ask how many injured workers OD'ed
The Board does not ask how many injured migrant workers have been sent home with no training, no compensation, and no hope of returning.
The Board does not ask how many workers live in poverty.
The Board does not ask how many injured workers have suffered family breakups after an injury.
The Board does not ask for a true reckoning of deaths from occupationally related illnesses. So you worked in a mine or foundry, or breathed in specks of metal cutting fluids, and you are dying of cancer? You smoked. Not our problem!
The Board does not ask a lot of questions that you and I would think are important. Questions that common sense and common fairness and common decency would demand to be asked.
The only reason they do not ask is because they do not want to know. And because they do not want us to know.
If they and you and I do not know these things, it makes it easy for the Board to know only the things it wants to know and to do the things it wants to do.
Like hand one and a half BILLION dollars back to employers in premium rebates. The Board was able to count every one of those dollars really well. But it sure did not count what it took to take that money and those resources away from the injured to give to the rich. The injured paid for that rebate in tears and more trouble than anyone knows. No one knows, because no one asks. Especially not the Board.
Still think that I am talking about a crazy conspiracy theory?
Then why don't you ask some questions?
Why don't you ask why there are NO injured workers on the Board of Directors of the compensation board?
Why don't you ask why out of ten directors, only two come from organized labour?
Why don't you ask why there are NO workers on the Board of Directors that come from the industrial sector of the workforce?
Why don't you ask all ten directors just what their ties and connections are to the Conservative Party?
Why don't you ask why directors are appointed by the government instead of elected?
Why don't you ask who the compensation system is for?
The compensation law prohibits
injured workers from suing employers for workplace injuries.
Injured workers are supposed to get their compensation from
the system. But the system tries to charge employers as little
money for premiums as possible, and even give money collected
for the benefit of injured workers back to employers.
So the employers get complete protection from lawsuits, but injured workers get less and less and less every year.
So who is the system for?
I do not want to sue my employer, even if I could. I want justice. I want to live in dignity. I want fairness. I want all of the people who have been disrespected, ignored, and hidden away to be seen, to be counted, and to be heard!
Do you want to know what a conspiracy is? It is a group of people who have organized themselves to hurt you and help themselves at your expense.
Do you want to know what crazy is? It's ignoring the evidence that these people have enriched themselves at our expense. It's being complacent. It is doing nothing and saying nothing because they think we are nothing.
But you want to know what REALLY crazy is? It's them thinking that we will remain ignorant, complacent, saying nothing and doing nothing, forever. That is REALLY crazy. Because that is NOT what is going to happen.
Starting now.
Workers' Comp Is a Right!!
This article was published in
Number 30 - May 31, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10303.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca