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April 15, 2014 - Vol. 3 No. 23

No to Privatization!

Block the Schemes of the
Liberals and PCs to Steal
Our Public Assets to Pay the Rich!

No to Privatization!
Block the Schemes of the Liberals and PCs to Steal Our Public Assets to Pay the Rich!
Government Announces Panel to Review Public Assets for Privatization
Foxes Placed in Charge of the Hen House

Justice For Injured Workers!
Scrap the Anti-Worker Draft Benefits Policies! No to Austerity! - Christine Nugent
Broad Rejection of Government's Attacks on Injured Workers
Ontario Federation of Labour Calls for Support for Injured Workers

Public Servants Broaden Fight for Rights
Union Reaches Out to Non-Unionized Colleagues - Philip Fernandez


No to Privatization!

Block the Schemes of the Liberals and PCs to
Steal Our Public Assets to Pay the Rich!

The Wynne government has announced it is selling off public real estate in Toronto, selling its shares in GM and establishing a panel to "review" other government assets -- Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario -- all as part of a plan to raise funds for a so-called Trillium Trust that is being created to finance $29 billion in infrastructure and public transit over 10 years.

It all sounds very noble but of course has been decided behind the backs of the people who are not party to any evaluation of either the assets or the infrastructure projects. In addition, the government has also announced that it will be tabling its latest austerity/pay-the-rich budget on May 1.

The theft of Ontario's public assets is being carried out at an ever faster rate through privatization in the form of public-private partnerships and other schemes to have the public finance private profit. It removes immense amounts of added-value from the economy and puts it in the hands of the filthy rich who destroy societies to enrich themselves further and maintain their positions of privilege. Not to mention the way these "partnerships" are used to attack the wages and working conditions of the working people. Meanwhile, the government also uses its stranglehold on the decision-making power to dictate austerity for the working people in order to steal more funds for its schemes.

The Liberals hope upon hope that the working people will be lulled to sleep with their claims of not "pre-judging" the outcome of their review. This is a fraud to hide that the Liberals are putting their ducks in a row to emerge as champions in the next election by defeating the PCs and winning a majority in the Legislature.

The working people of Ontario cannot afford to side with either the Liberals or the PCs in the mistaken belief that one or the other, or any other champion of neo-liberal assumptions for the economy, is a lesser evil. Opposition to the austerity agenda and its corollary, the sell-off and privatization of public assets, is a serious first step to depriving the monopolies and the governments in their service of the power to deprive the workers of what belongs to them by right -- wages and working conditions and a retirement commensurate with the standard of living they have created for themselves, as well as the right to health care and education at the standard society has achieved for themselves and their families. As for the cost of infrastructure the working people require, not the rich, it can be readily financed in a manner which is not destructive to the economy and the people if the motive to do so were present and governments stop paying the rich.

By building on the experiences they have already gained, the working people can establish a new landmark from which to advance their own pro-social program for the society.

Hands Off Our Public Assets!
Stop Governments from Paying the Rich!
Hold Governments to Account!

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Government Announces Panel to Review
Public Assets for Privatization

On April 11, the Liberal government announced that it will sell public assets it currently owns while establishing an expert panel to look at ways to "improve efficiency and optimize the full value of Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation (OPG), and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)." The announcement was made by Finance Minister/former Royal Bank of Canada executive Charles Sousa while speaking to the Economic Club in Toronto.

Sousa announced that the government would sell the LCBO headquarters and possibly the OPG building in Toronto. It also plans to sell its shares in GM which it acquired in the 2009 bailout of the auto company. Sousa said: "those are things that we can start moving on more quickly."

The advisory council was announced as the Liberal government also confirmed that the next austerity/pay-the-rich budget would be tabled on May 1-- International Day of Working Class Solidarity. This means that a provincial election may also have to be called shortly if the budget does not pass.

The Finance Minister said that the money raised would be used to pay for the government's infrastructure projects. "The Council will look to sweat the income statements so we can reinvest in public infrastructure projects that will create jobs and grow the economy," he said. The Liberal government had previously announced that it would clarify how it would pay for transit and infrastructure projects in the budget, with Premier Wynne saying that the "revenue tools" to do so would not include new taxes. In this way, the Wynne government is trying to make the issue into a debate about whether taxes should increase or whether public assets will need to be sold to pay for transit and infrastructure. It serves to distract from the fact that the Wynne government has been put in place to deliver more pay-the-rich schemes, including to the infrastructure monopolies that will make big scores.

The advisory council will look at ways "to get more value out of key public assets," particularly Hydro One, OPG, and the LCBO, Sousa said. The government's website refers to efficient governance, growth strategies, corporate reorganization, mergers, acquisitions, and public-private partnerships as ways this will be done.

Sousa commented on the panel's mandate, using the Liberals' bogus notion of "balance," saying that government ownership would be preferred but at the same time saying: "I'm not going to preclude what their recommendations will be, but they're going to assess what's the best use of those assets, and who should own them." He also said that some decisions require greater care and "we need experts to ensure that we protect the interests of Ontarians." He did not explain why the experts chosen were experts in privatization, however this clearly shows the real aims of the review.

The PCs responded by taking credit for the Liberals' proposal saying they had proposed the same idea in 2012 but were ignored by the government. The NDP meanwhile said that it would not support any privatization of public assets.

Sousa's comments serve as another example of the disinformation used to steer people into a debate over which type of privatization they should accept. The fact is that the Liberals are continuing the implementation of privatization of the public authority as governments before them did, particularly in the cases of Hydro One, OPG and the LCBO, with the narrow aim of opening up new areas for the rich to make big scores, by first buying up public assets and then being paid back those funds to carry out publicly-financed private infrastructure projects (public-private partnerships). The aim is to implement this agenda under the guise of "efficiencies" which means more austerity for the working people in the form of attacks on their wages, working conditions and job security and taking money out of the public purse to pay the rich. This will only make the situation worse for Ontarians and the economy.

The aim is also to silence the workers' opposition in any way possible, including through the use of so-called expert panels which are said to represent the public good. However, this disinformation is being rejected at every turn. Just as when teachers and education workers along with many others refused to accept the fraud of austerity when it came from the mouth of TD banker Don Drummond when he headed up the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services in 2012, such a fraud to privatize public assets will be rejected now.

Working people should go all out to deny the Liberals and PCs the impression each seeks that their programs meet the approval of the people. Their destruction of the public authority to make the rich richer is unacceptable.

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Foxes Placed in Charge of the Hen House

The panel of "experts" the government has entrusted with protecting the interests of Ontarians on the Premier's Advisory Council on Government Assets will be headed by Ed Clark, Group President and CEO of TD Bank Group. Clark sits on the Board of Directors of the C.D. Howe Institute, a neo-liberal "think tank" of the monopolies notorious for churning out pseudo-scientific, anti-worker "studies" to justify, among other things, the privatization of public assets -- with Canada Post and garbage collection services in the GTA being two recent targets. He is also on the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, a self-appointed group of some of the imperialist countries' richest and most powerful individuals that hold secret annual summits to which representatives of governments and select others are summoned on an invitation-only basis to receive their marching orders.

Also on the panel are:

David Denison, the former President of a private investment firm and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board who currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Royal Bank of Canada and Bell Canada Enterprises;

Janet Ecker, who held various cabinet posts in the Mike Harris and Ernie Eves PC governments from 1995-2003, including Minister of Finance, governments which waged an all out war on public services in order to privatize them. Ecker is currently President and CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, a public-private partnership established to attract foreign capital to Toronto's financial monopolies (banks, investment firms, pension funds and insurance companies) and make them more competitive globally. She is also on the Board of Directors of Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency created to facilitate the privatization of public transit in the GTA and surrounding areas through public-private partnerships, contracting out of jobs and other arrangements to hand vast amounts of public resources over to private businesses;[1]

Frances Lankin, who was a cabinet minister in the Bob Rae government from 1990 to 1995 and currently sits on the Board of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission as well as other boards. She co-led the Wynne government's Ontario Social Assistance Review between 2010 and 2012;

Ellis Jacob, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cineplex Entertainment, the biggest exhibitor of movies in Canada and the fourth-largest in North America.

Note

1. For more information about Metrolinx, see Ontario Political Forum, October 1, 2012.

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Justice For Injured Workers!

Scrap the Anti-Worker Draft Benefit Policies!
No to Austerity!


Injured workers and supporters hold action outside WSIB offices in London, April 11, 2014. (Occupy WSIB)

The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) held a consultation conference at the end of March to study the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Draft Benefits Policies in order to establish their position to present to the Board. All submissions to the WSIB are to be completed by April 30. The new policies will be going to the WSIB Board of Directors on June 5. According to WSIB, feedback will be reviewed by the Board and considered, after which the revised and new policies will be finalized.

Injured workers, their organizations and allies have concluded that the latest draft benefits policies on aggravation basis, pre-existing conditions, recurrences, work disruptions and permanent impairments confirm that the WSIB is continuing to resolve an unfunded liability on the backs of injured workers. Each draft benefits policy drastically alters existing policies to comply with the proposals prescribed by a KPMG audit. Lawyers at the conference pointed out that the newly introduced policy on pre-existing conditions will allow adjudicators to cut injured workers off benefits once the usual healing time is reached. The usual time will be declared the maximum time. Any ongoing impairment will be considered as an asymptomatic pre-existing condition.

The conference further concluded that the WSIB is on a path of wrecking the compensation system by these proposed policies which have been illegally implemented for the past four years. ONIWG, in a letter to Premier Wynne says: "We are facing an unprecedented legal and moral crisis in workers compensation with these proposed Benefit Policies."

Ontario Political Forum stands shoulder to shoulder with the injured workers. It joins the demand for the WSIB to scrap these policies and for the government to take responsibility to ensure that the right of injured workers and all workers to just compensation is guaranteed. Removing the WSIB's unfunded liability of $14 billion on the backs of injured workers is a clear example of the lengths governments that base themselves on neo-liberal assumptions will go to ensure they represent the interests of the rich. In upcoming elections workers must take a stand to defeat those politicians who stand for such a society.

ONIWG has launched a campaign to scrap the WSIB draft benefits policies through presentations to labour councils and municipalities, online petitions and letter writing campaigns to Premier Wynne and the WSIB. Should a general election be called in the province, they will be demanding that the platforms of the political parties include justice for injured workers. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) has issued a call to action to all labour councils to take up the opposition to this latest attack on injured workers. The implementation of the "draft" benefit policies, denial of claims and other measures have already taken place, resulting in injured workers being cut off benefits and being forced to rely on social services like Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Program, municipal housing and food banks and the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). These services are social programs which are being used to replace the responsibility of employers to properly fund their workers' compensation through the WSIB. Municipalities are facing increasing enrolments in the programs they administer. Municipal councils have taken up writing to the Premier to demand that the compensation system operate as intended. That is to say, that health services and compensation to provide for injured workers' needs and expenses are the responsibility of employers through premium contributions. In return, injured workers have given up their right to sue employers.

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Broad Rejection of Government's Attacks
on Injured Workers

The following are excerpts from recent submissions and letters to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Chair Elizabeth Witmer, Premier Kathleen Wynne, MPPs and the leaders of parties in the Legislature demanding that the WSIB scrap the 2014 draft policies!

The Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups (ONIWG)

An open letter to Premier Wynne from the Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups (ONIWG) calls on the Premier to "stop the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) from changing the law governing workers' compensation in Ontario by way of internal policy change. Changing the law should be done by the Ontario Legislature and our elected representatives, not the institution charged with following the law, the WSIB. The usurpation of power undertaken by the WSIB is a 'scandal' that your government should be aware of and stop before it adversely affects this province.

"The proposed Benefit Policy review changes the foundation of the Act that has been in place since Sir William Meredith created the modern workers compensation system 100 years ago. It is a massive and illegal attack on the rights of the injured workers of Ontario. Instead of a fair Ontario, which you promised, we are witnessing a virtual 'coup', happening under your watch, where an arms-length agency is attempting to change the law under the guise of 'updating' internal policies.

"Ontario elected your government to make the laws of our province. Unelected bureaucrats, like Mr. I. David Marshall, President and CEO of the WSIB, should follow the law, instead of changing the law, as if the WSIB were the government of Ontario. [...]

" [T]hese changes are already in place and, once illegally codified into WSIB policy, the Appeals Tribunal will be bound by them. This will result in injured workers being denied justice and becoming more reliant on social assistance, food banks, OHIP and so on. This is in direct contravention of your government concern about poverty reduction and the historic compromise, in which workers gave up their right to sue in return for fair and just compensation for as long as the disability lasts.

"The Benefit Policies will also introduce a massive intrusion into the private life of injured workers. The new focus will be on what happened before, not after, the injury. This will produce a massive intrusion into private medical records. Even before the policy change, we are already seeing workers who seek compensation for psychiatric conditions, being routinely asked to release all medical records for five years before the injury. This is in line with the most intrusive and socially backward legislation in states such as Alabama, Texas and Arizona. It is as though Tim Hudak were in charge of the WSIB, with his sympathy for the social policies of the regressive 'right to work' US states.

"We want to alert you, Premier Wynne that what is happening is not only a legal scandal, it is also a moral scandal. Under the leadership of Dalton McGuinty, the Government hired Mr. David Marshall with an explicit bonus attached to his 'success' in reducing the WSIB's unfunded liability. We do not know of any other previous President of the WSIB, with an incentive directly connected to benefit reductions to injured workers. Injured workers are offended by this bonus. The WSIB should be fair, and should be seen to be fair. Instead, the bonus structure of its President compromises the Board and the Government that hired him."

Explicit Attack on Rights of Injured Workers

Four lawyers who have practiced workers' compensation law for a collective 134 years call for the draft policies to be abandoned in a letter to the Premier. They state that it is a matter of record that the WSIB has been illegally adjudicating the claims of injured workers largely according to the draft benefit policies for the past four years, as the draft policies are contrary to the law as set out in the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, existing operational policies and a long history of decision making at both the WSIB and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal. They say that "no workers' compensation policies have ever been such an explicit attack on the rights of injured workers in all of the years since the Meredith principles and the workers' compensation system were established 100 years ago."

They point out that the WSIB asserts that the mere presence of even an asymptomatic pre-existing condition is evidence that an injury is not work-related and that benefits can be terminated even if the injured worker continues to suffer from a work-related injury/disease causing functional impairment.


Action outside WSIB offices in London, April 11, 2014. (Occupy WSIB)

United Steelworkers Injured Workers Program

The United Steelworkers Injured Workers Program, a project of the Steelworkers Toronto Area Council, in a letter to the Premier explains that the draft benefits policies allow the WSIB to cut benefits simply because a person has aged.

They say: "When WSIB turns its back on injured workers, Return to Work Services are withdrawn and employers are no longer pressured to accommodate persons with disabilities. Grievance procedures are in place in unionized workplaces to ensure OHRC [Ontario Human Rights Commission] compliance, but if an injured worker is on their own and receiving social assistance, they do not have the resources to fight the discrimination. Further, when the Board ends entitlement to health care benefits, the cost burden of treating injured workers is downloaded to the (OHIP) [Ontario Health Insurance Plan] rather than employer-funded WSIB."

"Put these Damaging Changes Aside" Says CUPE

In a letter to the WSIB Chair Elizabeth Witmer, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) states that they are opposed to the draft benefits policies which propose to blame workers' disabilities on pre-existing conditions rather than what happens to them at work. CUPE explains its involvement in the tragic situations facing many workers who are not covered by WSIB, in which employers have been let off the hook. They have launched the "WSIB Cover Me" campaign. The campaign exposes the pro-employer situation in Ontario whereby only 72 per cent of workplaces protect their workers under the compensation system managed by the WSIB. Their campaign material states: "That's the lowest rate in the country, and it leaves 1.8 million Ontario workers with no WSIB protection in the event of a workplace illness or injury." CUPE is demanding that the draft policies be scrapped and that the Ontario government ensure that workers' compensation is universal and that all employers collectively fund the compensation system.

Proposed Benefits Changes Will Significantly Reduce Compensation

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, Ontario Nurses' Association, Ontario Public Service Employees' Union, Service Employees International Union, Ontario Professional Firefighters' Association, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and the Society of Energy Professionals, in a joint letter to Elizabeth Witmer, state that in their view the policy on pre-existing conditions is simply a prescription to deny workers' claims, and for direct decision-makers to ignore the long accepted significant contributing factor test, a test that is used to determine whether a worker's injury or condition is compensable.

They highlight the fact that not only will the proposed benefits polices significantly reduce the compensation owed to injured workers but they will impact return to work and health and safety. They say employers will have little incentive to return injured workers to work when their accident costs are significantly reduced by these policy changes and the reduced claims costs will have a negative impact on the employers' obligation to provide a healthy and safe workplace.

The unions oppose the policies which attempt to diminish the contribution of work to the disability and that create a disposable workforce.

(injuredworkersonline.org, Facebook, ONIWG Consultation Meeting March 2014, wsib.on.ca)

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Ontario Federation of Labour Calls for Support for Injured Workers

Earlier this year, the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) issued a call to action to all its affiliated unions and their locals to take up the opposition to the direction the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is taking with its latest attack on injured workers through its proposed draft benefits policies.

Background notes provided by the OFL for labour councils state:

"In November 2013 the WSIB released amended draft policies dealing with issues including Recurrences, Determining Permanent Impairment, Work Disruptions, Aggravation Claims, and the Effects of Pre-existing conditions. These policies will have a drastic effect on a worker's ability to collect compensation for a work-related injury/disease. The underpinning theme throughout all of the policies is addressing the perception that workers are being compensated for symptoms that are more related to the natural aging process rather than the work-related accident. Injured workers will witness a chilling effect on their compensation entitlement. This will result on injured workers being forced onto ODSP benefits or Ontario Works, leaving municipalities or tax payers footing the bill, not the employers who injured them.

"The draft policies direct Board and Tribunal decision makers to focus on cutting compensation, especially where there is any evidence of what is called a 'pre-existing condition.' It is critical to understand that pre-existing conditions are defined very broadly, and include age-related changes or vulnerabilities even if they have never affected the worker's ability to do his/her job.

"The most common example of a pre-existing condition is 'degenerative disc disease,' which isn't really a disease; it is just a sign of an aging back. On an MRI of almost any worker, especially those over the age of 40, you will see evidence of degenerative disc disease -- even if the worker has a strong and healthy back and is completely symptom free.

"Under the new policies, decision makers will be directed to focus on the worker's pre-existing condition instead of the injury that happened at work. If they find a pre-existing condition, they are to deny ongoing benefits. Even if benefits are granted at the outset, the pre-existing condition will be used as an excuse to reduce longer term benefits, especially those for permanent disabilities.

"These policies undermine long-accepted principles of workers' compensation, such as:

 - the 'significant contributing factor' standard for causation. The work place need only be one contributing factor to the workers' disability, it need not be the only one; and

- the 'thin skull rule' which means that a worker is entitled to benefits even if the injury is more severe because he or she was more vulnerable.

"It is also likely that some aspects of the draft policies would be illegal, contrary to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Human Rights Code. The litigation over these changes could destabilize our workers' compensation system for years, interfering with cooperation of workers and employers on preventing work injuries and helping injured workers return to work. These policies should be scrapped now."

The Niagara and District Injured Workers Group made a presentation to the Niagara Regional Council on this question. It resulted in the Council agreeing to write a letter to Premier Wynne opposing these changes. More letters are forthcoming as compensation activists in labour councils take up involving City and Regional Councils in taking a stand against these unjust benefits policies that are also affecting the delivery of social services, including housing and homeless services in their municipalities. In their submission to their municipal council, the Niagara Group reported that one in five injured workers end up on social assistance.

Union representatives from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) say that injured workers are forced to apply to social assistance programs that then refer them to ODSP where they are, in some cases, assisted in filing appeals to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT). If the worker wins the appeal the WSIB must refund thousands of dollars to the ODSP. As part of the austerity agenda of the government, the WSIB is implementing its plan to get rid of its "unfunded liability" on the backs of injured workers and this has caused a tsunami of appeals to the WSIAT. The legal clinic Injured Workers' Consultants says that appeals are now taking up to five years.

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Public Servants Broaden Fight for Rights

Union Reaches Out to Non-Unionized Colleagues

On April 5 the Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO), the bargaining agent representing 12,000 professional and supervisory public servants which is currently in negotiations with the Ontario government, took the step of reaching out to their colleagues in the Management Compensation Plan (MCP) and the Senior Management Group (SMG). These management employees are excluded from the bargaining unit and are also facing the Ontario government's unilateral demands for concessions in the form of wage freezes and reduced pension and health benefits and job protection arrangements, among other things. MCA and SGM staff provide advice to elected officials, help organize and keep projects on track, manage conflicts, implement human resource policies and perform other management functions within the Ontario Public Service.

A website has been set up -- mcptogether.ca -- to invite collaboration and joint action in common cause to fight for a just contract that recognizes the vital contributions of employees working in all sectors of the Ontario Public Service.

In related news, on April 11 AMAPCEO announced that negotiations with the government have stalled and that both sides have agreed to mediation as the next step. The union continues to inform and engage its members through ongoing actions -- letter-writing campaigns, public leafleting, issuing press statements and other strategies -- to keep the membership informed and involved as well as to inform the people of Ontario about their just struggle.

Ontario Political Forum calls on all working people to stand with the AMAPCEO, MCA and SGM employees whose work is vital to the functioning of the government and whose fight for rights is a fight for the rights of all workers in Ontario to dignified working and living conditions.

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