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Journal article

Social Assistance or a Worker's Right: Workmen's Compensation and the Struggle of Injured Workers in Ontario, 1970-1985

Date

2006

Authors

Robert Storey

Abstract

The author considers the influence of the Texpack textile mill strike on the Canadian trade union movement to argue that the struggle over the definition of workmen's compensation seems to have been won by employers. A brief historical narrative traces awareness of the plight of injured Canadian workers, the arrogance toward migrant workers, the rise of the injured workmen's movement (IWM), & the findings of the Wyatt Report. The centrality of the interjection of the interests of society into the workmen's compensation system in the debate between injured workers & the government is related to the impacts on the Workmen's Compensation Board (WCB) by the Weiler Report, the Gray & White Papers. The 1984 consensus for radical, neoliberal transformation of the workmen's compensation system in Ontario was defeated, & the author offers a speculative summary to explain how business & government snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The author also calls for further research into the demands for justice that have been severely undermined by fear. References. J. Harwell

Journal title

Studies in Political Economy

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Economic sectors

General relevance - all sectors

Geographical focuses

Ontario