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It's About TIME! -
Campaign for Workers' Health |
If you have a work-related health
problem, have a Workers' Compensation case, or are just sick and tired from working long hours,
then read on... |
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"I didn't really think it was so bad until I got hurt" says William Ross when describing the long hours he had to put in working for the
Postal Service. "We were forced to work overtime, especially when the volume of mail picked up like during the holidays or
elections," he recalls. "You felt horrible. You didn't see your family." Ross injured his back in 1983 while lifting a bag of mail. The
sound of his back "popping" was so loud that Ross' supervisor, standing 10 yards away, heard it. Hurt on the job at 27, Ross has been
"put on ice for 15 years," and is in pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Describing what the injury has done to his life, Ross says, "It
destroys your life. You don't even care about money. You don't know if you'll be alive tomorrow, if you'll have a viable way of
surviving.
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I don't know about marriage, family. I don't know if I could provide. But why should these things be taken away from me?"
More and more of us, whether we are Federal employees like Ross, or paralegals, tech workers, garment workers, construction
workers or domestic workers, are required to put in longer and longer hours at our jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
U.S. households work more hours than households in any other industrialized country, including Japan. And these long hours are
taking a toll on our health, our families and our lives. |
"I didn't really think it was so bad until I got hurt" |
| Some injuries, like the one Ross suffered, are sudden and obvious - though they are more likely to happen when we are
tired from
long hours on the job. Other maladies develop over years of being overworked. Whether we are blue-collar or white-collar,
low-wage or high-salaried workers, we suffer from a growing array of health problems. Repetitive-stress syndrome, back
problems, asthma, vision problems, and nerve damage are just a few examples.
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Over-worked Americans
• The average number of overtime hours has jumpd 48% since 1991. 1 in 5 American workers put in more than 49 hours per week. Most are
white-collar professionals, including secretaries, lawyers, software engineers, and editors.
• Immigrant workers are commonly forced to work 80 to 90 hours per week.
• Families have less time to spend together - Family working hours are up 246 per year or 6 full-time weeks since 1986.
• America leads the world in the number of hours worked - US workers work 350 more hours, or 9 more full-time weeks than Europeans.
Thile working hours in most other industrialized countries are falling, they are rising in the US.
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Photo by Ramon Gil |
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Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics; 1999 and 200 study by International Labor Organization; Families and Work Institute, "National
Study
of the Changing Workforce," 1997; White-Collar Sweatshop by Jill Andresky Fraser |
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Long Work Hours are Killing Us
In the name of greater productivity, we are all being sweated. Businesses are downsizing and laying workers off, forcing the
remaining workers to pick up the slack by working longer hours or doing more work in the same amount of time. Most of us in the
U.S. do not have the right to say "no" to long hours. As Rekha Devi, one domestic worker put it, "I felt like I had to impress my boss -
work harder and longer, or else she would fire me." |
 | "I felt like I had to impress my boss -
work harder and longer, or else she would fire me." |
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For those of us who work in garment factories a 40-hour-a-week job is considered part time. You Di Liao, who worked in a unionized
factory in Manhattan for six years, says she worked 14 hours a days, often 7 days a week, for $2 an hour. Standing up to hang
garments for all those hours caused her legs to swell, and one day, exhausted, she slipped and suffered a stroke.
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Longer hours means more
money?
No, not always
• Piece-rate workers find that as we finish more pieces, the rate is slashed, and we end up making the same amount of money while
working longer hours.
• Salaried white-collar and contract workers often work longer hours to finish a job but don't get paid for those extra hours.
• The more hours that some of us work, the more others are out of work; so bosses can get someone else to do our job for less
pay.
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The 9-to-5 job and 40-hour work week has become a thing of the past for most of us, who have to work anywhere
from 50 to 80 hours
a week. Add to this housework and care for one's children, and one finds that many of us - particularly women - are almost
constantly working. On average, employed mothers are estimated to work more than 80 hours a week.
In 1999, close to 6 million people reported work-related health problems in the U.S. More than 600,000 workers had serious injuries
due to overexertion and repeated motions-almost one-third of all serious job-related injuries. Sixty thousand people in the U.S.
died from work-related illnesses in 1998.2 The actual number of workers suffering from occupational diseases and injuries is much
higher, as many of us do not report such health problems, telling ourselves that it is part of aging or "the nature of the job." Long
hours also lead to chronic stress and anxiety, sleep deprivation, depression, high-blood pressure, cardiac problems, digestive
problems and a general feeling of "burn out." We experience strains in our relationships. We lose track of our children; our kids are
often asleep by the time we get home. Some of our children stop going to school. Some join gangs. Our ties to friends and community
disintegrate. We are suffering in all aspects of our lives as a result of toiling long hours.
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New York State's Workers' Compensation: A Dehumanizing "Nightmare"
When workers get hurt on the job (except for certain categories of workers such as Federal employees) most turn to the Workers
Compensation Board (WCB). Many describe their experience at the Board as a dehumanizing "nightmare" in a "system that doesn't
work." |
The WCB was created in 1914 to protect employers from getting sued by employees who get hurt on the job by providing quick
medical treatment and weekly payments to cover living expenses while workers are unable to work. All employers are required to
purchase Workers Compensation insurance. Workers whose employers do not purchase insurance qualify for benefits under the
uninsured fund of the WCB.
In reality, insurance companies and employers, aided by the WCB, reap large profits at the expense of those of us who are injured.
We are treated like criminals. Judges silence us, while allowing employers and insurance companies to say whatever they please to
justify their denial of our benefits and medical treatments.
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NYC: Worst among neighbors
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| State | Weekly minimum
for injured workers |
| PA | $339.43 |
| NH | $177.60 |
| CT | $158.40 |
| NJ | $177.60 |
| MA | $149.93 |
| NY | $40.00 |
Source: US Dept of Labor, "State Workers' Compensation Laws," 1999; and information from
states
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Insurance companies, together with the WCB, delay our cases for 5 or 10 years or even longer. Many of our cases are closed right
away. According to a study by the Mt. Sinai Occupational Health Clinic, 80% of their patients with repetitive-stress syndrome had
claims that were not initially accepted by the insurer.
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"I was unable to get any medical treatment for 7
years" | During all this delay and denial, we are left without income or medical
treatment. Many of us are forced to return to work to survive,
and end up making our injuries worse. Those of us too disabled to work become dependent on our family or on public assistance.
Sometimes we become homeless. By allowing delays of WCB cases and providing public assistance to those who are eligible, the
State is, in effect, subsidizing insurance companies by paying money to workers when insurance companies should be paying
benefits. |
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Insurance Companies Profit from Pain
In 1994, private carriers in N.Y. State collected $2 billion in Workers' Compensation premiums and paid out only $1 billion in wage
replacement and medical costs. This difference is among the highest in the nation. Commercial insurers in NYS are in the top 8% of the most
profitable such companies in the U.S.
Source: National Association of Insurance Commisioners, "Report on Profitability By
Line
By State," 1998 |
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The insurance companies are permitted to appeal cases repeatedly for any reason to delay medical treatment and weekly living
expenses. Huang Sheng Ku, who routinely worked overtime as a potato-chip packager at the Terra Chips factory, fell on a machine,
injuring her back, legs and fingers in 1993. After 7 years and 18 hearings, during which her boss was allowed to falsely testify as a
doctor, Ku still has not received the medical treatment or payments she is entitled to. |
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In 1994, private carriers in N.Y. State collected $2 billion in Workers' Compensation premiums and paid out only
$1 billion in wage
replacement and medical costs. This difference is among the highest in the nation. Commercial insurers in NYS are in the top 8% of the most
profitable such companies in the U.S.
In addition, insurance companies sometimes deny payments to doctors, who in turn refuse to continue providing treatment to
injured workers. For this reason, Arek Tomaszewski, a former asbestos remover, was unable to get any medical treatment for 7
years. |
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Many workers who have sustained injuries or developed occupational disease have claims dismissed, after being dragged out for
years. Stanislawa Kocimska, a former home attendant for 8 years injured her knee and back in 1994 when she ran to catch a patient
who was falling out of bed. However, the WCB dismissed her case and denied her any benefits or medical treatment. Without
benefits and unable to work, she is now homeless.
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Denying Our Reality
Often, we are denied benefits because doctors paid by insurance companies tell us we are "fine" and able to work. Notably, New
York is the only state that limits our choice to a list of physicians prepared by the WCB3. Mussa Abdulkader, a former custodian,
suffered a herniated disc on the job from lifting a trash bag, but has been given a clean bill of health by two of the carrier's
consulting physicians. One doctor said, "At the age of 38 anyone could have this injury." His case was closed. |
"At the age of 38 anyone could have this
injury." |
Furthermore, numerous illnesses and injuries are not even recognized as work related. For instance, those of us who are exposed to
hazardous chemicals or develop repetitive stress syndrome have a particularly difficult time getting our injuries recognized. For 10
years Eva Herrera was exposed to chemicals at the T-shirt factory where she worked. The long hours of chemical exposure in a
poorly ventilated factory, along with repetitive motions, led to nerve damage, chronic migraines, respiratory weakness, and muscle
pains in her back, neck and shoulders. The WCB has questioned Ms. Herrera's claim that her health problems are job related. |
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Many injured workers who do receive weekly payments from the WCB, find that their payments are either very low to begin with or
are arbitrarily slashed to as low as $40 per week. While New York State ranks lowest amongst all states in the maximum amount it
allows for disability benefits - two-thirds of one's pay or $400 per week, whichever is lower - an even worse problem is its minimum
rate. New York's minimum is absurdly low: $40 a week. This puts New York with the bottom 10 states in the nation for minimal
protection of injured workers. |
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No Longer Silent and Alone: Workers FIght Back
Many of us have silently watched our time, health and humanity stolen from us. Women, especially, know what this means. We toil
long hours to make a living. We scramble endlessly for benefits, medical treatments, or a place to live. Many of us have been through
the Workers' Compensation system, an experience that has caused countless numbers of us to lose our families, our dignity, and our
self-respect. Our friends and relatives accuse us of not wanting to work, of being lazy. Those of us who are injured mothers can no
longer enjoy simple pleasures with our children: prepare a bubble bath, jump rope, or ride a roller coaster. Instead, our children
worry, take on jobs and more responsibilities at home, and accompany us to WCB hearings and doctors' visits.
We have tried it on our own - looking for a better lawyer, looking for a better doctor - but have come up against a system that
frustrates, humiliates and discourages us at every turn.
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Snashall: Call my 800-number!
Appointed by Governor George Pataki, the WCB chairman, Robert Snashall, was formerly a lawyer for the States Insurance Fund. As chairman,
he has hired high-ranking insurance officials to the WCB, and made the reduction of Workers' Compensation premiums for businesses a
priority.
After Snashall met with members of out Campaign for Workers' Health in 1997, he sped up the resolution of a few cases, but even these
resulted in little money. Last year, when our campaign brought to his attention the now-well-known case of Polish nanny Krystyna
Maliszewska,
who lost her leg in a work-related accident, Snashall quickly pushed this and other cases. Nothing at the WCB has really changed, however,
despite Snashall's boasting of a toll-free number to assist workers. Most cases continue to drag on for years, and benefits remain
shamefully low. |
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Some of us have also tried to get help from advocacy organizations. They have not helped us to get more than crumbs. These groups
are not interested in us when we are no longer employed. Some groups only give us educational material about what the law says
we are entitled to. When the reality doesn't match what's supposed to happen, they make us feel like we are the problem.
Some of us have had enough. We are no longer silent and alone. We are fighting back. We are coming forward to change a system
that has robbed us of so much.
"Sick and tired of being sick and tired" - Fannie Lou Hamer
There is more to life than the grinding hours of work. No amount of dollars makes up for the loss of one's health, for the missed
events in our daughter's or son's childhood, and for the lost opportunity to discover or develop our talents.
It's About TIME! The Campaign for Workers' Health brings together injured workers and not-yet-injured workers to fight for
what we
value: our health, families and lives. We are exposing the greediness of employers and insurance companies whose profit-driven
practices and policies put our time and health at a rock-bottom premium. |
| We are organizing injured and not-yet-injured workers to pressure the Workers' Compensation system to recognize and
compensate us for our work-related injuries in a timely fashion, pay us interim benefits while we wait for a decision, provide us
good health care, and be accountable to working people. And, to prevent more workers from suffering occupational-health
problems, we are pressing for the legal right to say "no" to overtime hours without being penalized.
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We are fighting to win the wages and benefits that we can live on, but we will not stop there. We are also building a new movement
to take control of our time so that we can live our lives the way we choose, giving time to what we consider important.
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| Workers across the U.S. challenge long hours in 2000: |
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The state of Maine signed in law a cap of 80-hours of overtime in any 2-week period.
West Virginia and Pennsylvania discussed and deferred action on bills that would allow workers to refuse overtime without being
penalized.
Washington State policymakers also considered a cap on overtime.
New Jersey lawmakers voted to prohibit mandatory overtime in hospitals. |
California started counting overtime after an 8-hour day, not a 40-hour week.
The Verizon workers went on strike largely over the issue of forced overtime, especially for women workers.
Connecticut firefighters challenged mandatory overtime as a violation of the 13th Amendment that prohibits slavery.
New York nurses started protesting the mandatory overtime they have to work.
Source: The NY Times, "Overtime Rises, Making Fatigue a Labor Issue," by Mary Williams Walsh, 09/17/00. |
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Wake Up!
We have got to send a wake-up call out to not-yet-injured workers: together we can get rid of long hours and other sweatshop
conditions. Now, before it's too late.
Demands
Among our demands are:
- Eliminate mandatory overtime hours which are causing so many health problems and hurting our quality of life.
- Overhaul the New York State Workers' Compensation system.
The Workers' Compensation Board must:
- Make decisions on cases within 3 months.
- Provide immediate interim living expenses within one week of a claim's filing.
- Increase the minimum rate to an amount that injured workers can live on.
- Report to the legislature and the public on its compliance with the above time requirements.
- Force Board Chairman Snashall to step down.
Get Involved!
It's about TIME! The Campaign for Workers' Health is currently sponsored by the Chinese Staff & Workers' Association, the National
Mobilization Against SweatShops and Workers' Awaaz. The campaign is also endorsed by a growing list of organizations, schools
and religious groups.
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Here are ways to participate:
Sponsor our campaign: involve your organization, join the campaign's Steering Committee, and pay a $100 sponsorship fee.
Endorse our campaign and sign our Pledge.
Table and petition with us.
Set up presentations, teach-ins, and fundraisers about the issue.
Write letters to Board Chairman Robert Snashall and Governor George Pataki urging them to meet our demands.
Set up meetings with organizations or elected officials.
Circulate our petition.
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Call members of a group you belong to for demonstrations, meetings and other events.
Help to reach out to other injured workers in your workplace or trade. Form a group and link up with our campaign. Send us your
stories.
Contribute to our campaign; make checks out to NMASS, earmarked for It's About TIME! Campaign for Workers' Health.
Come up with other ideas!
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For more information, contact It's about TIME! Campaign for Workers' Health, c/o NMASS at (718) 625-9092 or P.O. Box 130293, N.Y., N.Y.
10013-0995.
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mail: NMASS P.O. Box 130293, New York, NY
10013-0995
office: 30 Third Avenue, Brooklyn (between Atlantic and State)
tel: 718-625-9091 • fax: 718-625-8950
• email: nmass@yahoo.com
©2001 NMASS All
RIghts
Reserved
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