UFCW Canada activists making a stand for injured workers during a rally at the Ontario legislature on June 1. To see a photo gallery of the event, click on the image above.

UFCW Canada activists joined trade unionists from across Ontario on June 1 to commemorate Injured Workers Day and to protest the province’s workers compensation system.

The 200-plus group of activists gathered at the provincial legislature, Queen’s Park, and used a combination of colourful signs, street theatre and rousing speeches to draw the attention of politicians and various media outlets, including the CBC, and to raise awareness about a system that puts employers ahead of injured workers.

Twenty-eight percent of Ontario’s employers are currently being allowed to get away without paying into Ontario’s workplace health and safety prevention and enforcement systems. This leaves an estimated 38 percent of Ontario’s workers without Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) coverage.

UFCW Canada and the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) are calling on the Ontario government to:

• Put and end to the poverty facing injured workers
• Extend mandatory WSIB coverage for all workers, in all sectors
• Restore injured workers benefits to the full cost of living
• Eliminate experience rating
• Eliminate “deeming” and practices that limit injured workers’ post-injury benefits