CORNWALL, Ontario – The Network of Injured Workers of Ontario are undartaking a biking marathon to raise awareness of unfair treatment from the Workers Insurance and Safety Board.
The riders began in Ottawa and plan on being in Toronto by June 1 for Injured Workers Day.
They stopped in Cornwall at the monument in remembrance of injured workers.
Karl Crevar has been working with the Network of Injured Workers of Ontario for 25 years and says that in that time, support from injured workers from the WSIB has decreased.
“What we’ve seen since 1990 is a reduction of benefits and lifetime pensions are gone,” he said. “People are not getting any help with their cost of living at all. We know members of your community in Cornwall who have been injured on the job and are being forced into poverty.”
Crevar said that the goal of the bike ride was to raise awareness for their cause and to get support from local governments because he said, municipalities will be the ones who have to pay the cost of injured workers if WSIB does not step up to the plate.
“The lack of benefits is being downloaded onto taxpayers,” said Crevar. “We want city councils to pass a resolution to oppose the downloading of costs and to support benefits that keep workers from being pushed into poverty.”
