Wisconsin Republicans Fast-tracking Bill that Effectively Kills Workers' Comp

[marmar]

(The Progressive) Wisconsin has the distinction of being the birthplace of the Worker's Compensation system.

Approximately 100 years ago, labor and management struck a "grand bargain" where if a worker gets injured at work, the worker cannot sue their employer for damages—even if the injury is clearly the employer's fault.

Instead, a system was put in place where the pay for any particular injury is dictated by law and simple to figure out, and where any injury that occurs at work, regardless of whose fault it is, is compensated. The benefit for the worker is that they don't have to go to court if they are injured, and the benefit for the employer is that they never get dragged to court for injuries that occur to their workers. Instead, employers simply have a worker's compensation insurance policy that pays out, at a very meager rate, compensation for the injuries that happen at work.

.....(snip).....

Next week, Wisconsin Republicans plan to throw all that out the window. According to memo sent to all legislators late Wednesday afternoon, Rep. John Spiros in the Wisconsin Assembly and Sen. Duey Stroebel in the Senate, plan on jointly introducing the legislation on October 29. (The Legislative Reference Bureau's review of the legislation is below.)

Under the new system, worker's still will not be allowed to sue their employers for workplace injuries, but will be required to prove that the workplace injury wasn't their fault to receive their full compensation-- which is still codified at the meager rate.

- See more at: http://progressive.org/news/2015/10/188374/wi-republicans-fast-tracking-bill-effectively-kills-workers-comp#sthash.FY7AFoqw.dpuf

[B Calm]

1. and Wisconsin use to be a strong union state. . .

[jwirr]

9. Wisconsin used to be a strong liberal state. I would be very

interested in knowing how one of America's strongest liberal and union states came to be such a failing state?

[BillZBubb]

2. Wisconsin deserves what they are getting.

They've voted these clowns in multiple times.

[global1]

3. When Walker And His Repug Henchmen Get Thrown Out Of Office Will The Dems....

be able to reverse all the damage that they did?

[yeoman6987]

5. I don't know some still blame Reagan for the countries woes and he's been gone 35 years

I guess it depends on the legislature.

[Half-Century Man]

4. I could not sue my employer when I developed leukemia due to chemical exposure

Having to prove that I was completely blameless, that every move I made did not contribute to accidentally exposing myself at some point during a 14 year period would have been impossible.
Was it the benzene, the hexivalent chrome, the methyl-amyl ketone's, or something else? During which one of the hundreds of times I had to work on the machinery coated with, containing, or next to tanks of the three leading suspects was I exposed? What if it was an accumulative effect?

This just further converts the worker into the slave. The human commodity to be used up and disposed of as though they were a dirty filter. It is best exemplified by the transition of the "Personnel Dept" into "Human Resources".

[DirkGently]

6. You almost have to admire their focus.

If Wisconsin voters intended to elect people to destroy workers and teachers, they certainly got what they were after.

(I have a feeling they did not).

[Starry Messenger]

7. It's like letting Republicans win makes things worse for workers or something.

[a kennedy]

8. I think Wisconsin was one of the first states to start the workers comp program.......

1911 Wisconsin and Washington, the State, started the first workers comp fund.

http://info.farragut.com/Services-Blog/bid/147766/The-Early-History-of-Workers-Compensation

I just despise Wanker and his repub cronies, and what they've done to this once awesome State.