Brothers and Sisters,

The Michigan House passed a terrible attack on workers compensation recently, HB5002. The bill would slash benefits for workers injured on the job.

First off, the bill makes it all but impossible for an injured worker to receive medical treatment from a physician of their own choosing. The bill would require injured workers to utilize a physician chosen by the employer or the Workers Compensation insurance company for the first 45 days after the injury occurred. Since most workplace injuries are healed within two months, this means that injured workers will have difficulty even getting a second opinion for their injury. Whatever happened to the concept of being able to choose one’s own doctor? Apparently it does not apply to people injured on the job.

Even more troubling, however, is that the legislation for the first time introduced the concept of “imaginary wages” into the Workers Compensation statute. Currently, employees who are too severely injured to return to their previous jobs must seek new employment that they can physically perform. They must accept new employment if offered, or else forfeit their workers compensation benefits. Once they accept new employment, their workers compensation benefits are reduced by the amount of wages they are earning at their new job. Therefore, the current system has a large incentive for injured workers to return to work.

House Bill 5002 takes this principle to a completely new dimension by allowing Workers Compensation insurance companies to reduce benefits based on “imaginary wages.” This means that injured workers could have their benefits reduced based on jobs that are “reasonably available,” even if they are not offered such a job and earn no wages from it! This opens up the potential for Workers Compensation insurance companies to claim that an injured worker could become a telemarketer, or a pizza delivery person, or a department store greeter, or any other job they can think of, and reduce their compensation benefits accordingly, even if no such jobs are offered to the injured worker.

Equally horrifying is the creation of the concept of “imaginary pensions” contained in HB 5002. Currently, if an injured worker retires, their Workers Compensation benefits are reduced by the amount of their pension income. Similarly to the way in which House Bill 5002 creates “imaginary wages,” it would allow Workers Compensation insurance companies to reduce benefits by the amount of pension that an employee is eligible for, even if they are not retired and collecting it! This in essence would force any injured worker who qualifies for a pension to accept retirement, even if they cannot afford it, since their Workers Compensation benefits would be reduced whether they accept retirement or not. There is no reason to economically force injured workers into retirement simply due to the fact that they were unfortunate enough to be injured on the job.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Manufacturers Association are strongly pushing this extreme legislation at a time when Michigan’s Workers Compensation rates are some of the lowest in the nation. In fact, Michigan businesses have seen their Workers Compensation rates drop for 12 out of the last 14 years, and they are expected to fall by over 7% next year. There is no crisis or problem that this bill is seeking to fix. This is nothing but avarice – pure and simple greed.

We need to send a strong message to the Michigan Senate: politicians in Lansing need to focus on solving the jobs crisis and creating an economy that works for the 99 percent, not just a select few. On Tuesday, November 22, there's a hearing on HB5002, and we need to make sure the Senators on the committee see a room full of Michiganders that support workers compensation that helps injured workers, not CEOs. Plan to be there early--the hearing starts at 1:00 pm. If this bill is passed, it would slash workers compensation benefits if you get hurt on the job--and it would give your employer more power to dictate where you can seek medical treatment. Call Local 223 at 313-271-9700 to attend the hearing on Tuesday, November 22 at 1:00 p.m. and click here to sign up for the event with the Michigan AFL-CIO.

Then take action and send a message to your Senator: We Are The People Michigan has set up a page to send a letter.

Workers compensation should help Michigan workers injured on the job, not be an excuse for Lansing politicians to give payback to CEOs and special interests.

An email message we received from We Are The People Michigan

Have you ever been on workers' compensation? If so, we need you!

If you haven't been on workers' comp, then will you forward this email on to 5 or more of your friends and help us find other folks?

As the assault on Michigan's workers continues, we need to find individuals who have been on workers' comp in the past to attend a hearing at the Capitol so we can show politicians that they need to protect workers, not CEOs. If this is you, click here to save workers' comp!

Even if you haven't been on workers' comp, you can still fight the corporate special interest power grab with three easy steps:

1. Send this petition to a key group of state senators and tell them to protect workers, not CEOs
2. Forward this email to 5 or more of your friends
3. Join us on Facebook to learn about even more ways you can help out
4. Text MI to 225568 for breaking news and information in your area.

We know that there is power in numbers, and we can't save workers' comp without you!

For Michigan,

Julielyn,
We Are The People Michigan