General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Demolition of Workers’ Comp
DENNIS WHEDBEES CREW WAS RUSHING to prepare an oil well for pumping on the Sweet Grass Woman lease site, a speck of dusty plains rich with crude in Mandaree, North Dakota.
It was getting late that September afternoon in 2012. Whedbee, a 50-year-old derrickhand, was helping another worker remove a pipe fitting on top of the well when it suddenly blew.
Oil and sludge pressurized at more than 700 pounds per square inch tore into Whedbees body, ripping his left arm off just below the elbow. Coworkers jerry-rigged a tourniquet from a sweatshirt and a ratchet strap to stanch his bleeding and got his wife on the phone.
Babe, he said, tell everyone I love them.
It was exactly the sort of accident that workers compensation was designed for. Until recently, Americas workers could rely on a compact struck at the dawn of the Industrial Age: They would give up their right to sue. In exchange, if they were injured on the job, their employers would pay their medical bills and enough of their wages to help them get by while they recovered.
No longer.
more
http://www.propublica.org/article/the-demolition-of-workers-compensation
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Just another leg of the race to the bottom.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)except the 'right' to work until you die.
Historic NY
(37,457 posts)now so if your young your screwed it goes down weekly too.
2naSalit
(86,868 posts)a couple years ago when I was injured. There's a whole industry designed to keep you from getting any compensation because once the insurer's doctor determines that there's no damage, you are screwed. We have to revolt against the corporate control of our government and the elimination of our rights.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)This point is true and devastating; but, what I find more problematic is the arbitrary time limit for reporting injures. And I have found that, although most companies have Notice Requirement (informing/requiring employees to report injuries), it is a routine occurance that companies will sit on the reporting, or give confusing information to the employee regarding whether they CAN, and in some cases, SHOULD file a claim. And then, there is the looming fear of retaliation IF the employee files.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Our government will not be satisfied until every single right that worker's have earned thru their blood and sweat has been denied.
Our voices have been drowned out by the overwhelming demands of corporate control.
Thanks for sharing this most revealing and maddening article, n2doc.
FSogol
(45,562 posts)Injured Workers Suffer As 'Reforms' Limit Workers' Compensation Benefits
Until recently, America's workers could rely on a compact struck at the dawn of the Industrial Age: They'd give up their right to sue. In exchange, if they were injured on the job, their employers would pay their medical bills and enough of their wages to help them get by while they recovered.
No longer.
Over the past decade, state after state has been dismantling America's workers' comp system with disastrous consequences for many of the hundreds of thousands of people who suffer serious injuries at work each year, a ProPublica and NPR investigation has found.
Read or listen here: http://www.npr.org/2015/03/04/390441655/injured-workers-suffer-as-reforms-limit-workers-compensation-benefits