General Electric workers seek support from Minister of Health

On Jan. 18, representatives of the GE Retirees Occupational Health Advisory Committee met with Labour Minister Kevin Flynn in Peterborough to urge him to continue funding Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers or OHCOW.

Workers who claim they were made sick by exposure to chemicals at General Electric were checked out by OHCOW.

“They would look at where you worked, the work you did, what you were exposed to, and that includes bystander exposure,” says Sue James with the retirees committee.

OHCOW then sent the results to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. The WSIB determines if compensation is warranted.

Minister Flynn told the workers that the work OHCOW was doing was a duplication of the medical testing done by the WSIB and was therefore redundant. Patient files and cases held by OHCOW would now be sent directly to WSIB.

But James says her group doesn’t trust the WSIB. Since it’s funded by corporations, James says it does not have the best interests of the workers at heart.

“We don’t feel they are on the side of the worker, but the Worker’s Compensation Act, the Worker’s Health and Safety Act, suggests that the burden of proof or the probability should side on the workers side,” James says.

The retirees committee says funding for OHCOW has already been cut.

But in an email, Micheal Speers, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour, says the ministry is reviewing the submission that OHCOW made on Jan. 18, and has yet to make a determination.

In the same email, Labour Minister Flynn adds the ministry has informed OHCOW that should it need to review any file denied by the WSIB, financial support will be provided.