BREWER, Maine — Local clergy, injured workers and others gathered at the Ivers Street headquarters of the Greater Bangor Area Central Labor Council on Monday to speak out against a bill they say would be detrimental to people who are injured at work.
At issue is LR 2787, legislation that would make changes to Maine’s workers’ compensation system and limit the duration of benefits.
Mark Richards, who was run over by a forklift while on the job, was among those who spoke during a news conference organized by the Worker Center of Eastern Maine, according to a press release from the labor group Food AND Medicine.
“It’s been really hard on my family,” Richards said of his injury. “And I don’t know what I would do with a 10-year limit on benefits. I don’t know how I’d feed my family. No one who works hard all his life should have to worry about where his next meal is going to come from.”
The Rev. Mark Doty of Hammond Street Congregational Church in Bangor called the legislation “unjust and immoral” and said the 10-year benefits limit would be “arbitrary, capricious and cruel. … For workers who have suffered permanent, disabling injuries on the job, the cutoff of funds will create monstrous problems.”
Jack McKay, an organizer with the worker center, said the state’s workers’ compensation system is working and that it is decreasing costs.
“Insurance rates have been coming down. They’ve come down 56 percent since 1993 and 7 percent last year alone,” he said. “The only people who testified in favor of this were insurance companies.”
McKay said LR 2787 was endorsed by the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee on April 4 in a party-line vote, with seven Republicans voting for the measure and six Democrats against. He said the measure is expected to be voted on in both the Senate and the House by the end of the week.
“This bill will harm severely injured workers,” McKay said. “This legislation drastically reduces the disability benefits available to severely injured workers.
“Current law has a safety net that provides benefits for the duration of disability for severely injured employees who experience permanent loss of earnings,” he added. “This proposal eliminates that safety net and caps benefits for almost all injured workers at 10 years even if their injury results in permanent earnings loss or prevents them from returning to work.”
Did John Edwards attend?
Jack McKay is just a lefty looking to exploit others to prove a political point. No story here.
The Republican War Against Workers continues. Its success will depend on how many voters can be convinced that they, themselves, could never possibly become disabled.
I am a worker. I am a Republican. I am pro worker, pro business. With no business nobody works. Saying that Republicans have a war against workers is laughable and nothing more than a feeble atempt to smear the Right.
This is really limp. It isn’t a war on workers but an attempt to straighten out another mess. I spent two months working this winter doing roofing and siding with a guy out on workers comp. Kind of interesting to see his full range of capacity while he pocketed the cash from WC. I guess the impression is that the ins. companies make more money if the benefits are curtailed, but the facts are different. They make more if they are paying out more, kind of like the feds. The more money they handle the more they get like any middle man. If you don’t think this system isn’t broken, I’ve got a bridge for you to buy in Deer Isle.
Please don’t lump all into one basket.Disability has many faces and one of them is the face of dis pare do to the fact that they are no longer productive.Disability doesn’t always mean that you are completely unable to perform any task.I might be able to shingle one roof but I wouldn’t be able to move for a week following.
If this man can do this on a daily basis,he is ripping the system.
If you didn’t report him,then you’re the problem.
This is a good bill for the insurance companies who will profit at the expense of the workers of Maine. It tries to fix something that isn’t broke. Urge your legislator to oppose this bad bill.
Working people vote Democratic, unless the Republicans are able to fool them. If you think your boss deserves a raise,vote Republican. If you think YOU deserve a raise,vote Democratic. Dont let the right trick you into voting against your own financial self interest like Bush did in the 2004 election when he used fear and war as tools to get people to vote against themselves.
Hard to believe people with idiotic opinions like this can think about issues and then vote.
No, working people want their tax burden decreased, and what they do pay in taxes spent wisely. Democrats think they deserve a piece of what others work hard for now matter how little they contribute.
There, hope that clears things up for you.
It goes back to 1980.Reagan destroyed the middle class and his little flunkies finished the job.
You need reality therapy if you believe that. Ronald Reagan inherited a mess from Jimmy Carter, who was the most inept President this country had ever seen. Reagan left office with a stable economy.
So that’s why his little pet couldn’t get a second term.Last surplus-Clinton.Bush squandered it and left us a deficit.
That is ridiculous. I have been a Republican my entire adult life and I am disabled. I firmly believe that today’s Republican Party is what the Democrat Party was 30 years ago. Today’s Democrat Party is so far to the left that only hard core liberals believe in Democrat ideology.
Why would you still be collecting under worker’s comp if your permanently disabled? Wouldn’t you become ineligible for benefits because you’d have filed for social security benefits? Before I get hammered…I’m asking a serious question as I really don’t know the answer.
2/3 of SSDI cases are denied on the first try.In Atlanta,the wait time for a decision is more than two years.Ins cos. will do anything to discredit people and not pay out.The less they pay the higher the profits and the greater the misery.
Thank you! I did not know that about SSDI cases and the rejection rate.
I wish those numbers weren’t true but they are.