The Windsor-Essex Injured Workers Group rallied outside of the Windsor Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Office on Ouellette Avenue, joining injured workers across Ontario who are saying enough is enough.
Injured and ill workers and allies gathered on Monday afternoon to present the Minister of Labour with a clear list of what that money should and could be spent on to address the needs of legitimately injured and ill workers before handing more money to employers.
At the end of November, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that eligible businesses would receive a share of $2.5-billion that the WSIB is returning to employers due to a surplus.
The group gathered at the WSIB Office only to find out when they arrived that the office was now permanently closed, with no prior notice.
A statement from WSIB states that since the COVID-19 pandemic majority of employees worked from home. They state that the lease expired in the fall, and they did not renew it. WSIB says that a notice was placed on the doorway to let people know how to reach them.
Liz Garant, President of the Windsor Injured Workers' Group, says enough is enough.
"I will keep fighting! I am 62-years-old, and until my casket goes in that ground I will fight for everybody in the City of Windsor, and I will not stop."
Suzy, Secretary of the Windsor Injured Workers' Group, says WSIB has now gifted nearly $19-billion to employers since 2017.
"Imagine the shock then, when the WSIB announced that instead of restoring decades of cuts to injured workers, they are simply handing $2.5-billion to the very employers who have left us injured, ill, and poor."
Suzy says it was very surprising to see the office now gone.
"You show up there thinking you're going to be bringing attention to the WSIB, and lo and behold, WSIB doesn't exist in Windsor anymore. They shut down permanently their offices, we found out."
Kendal McKinney, member of the Research and Action Committee of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups, says the office being gone is symbolic.
"Empty building, empty promises. It's perfectly symbolic, it's perfectly symbolic! You go to talk, to metaphorically talk to somebody, and they're not there. And of course that shows how much dialogue there is between the board, and the community that they're supposed to serve."
Aaron Lazarus, Vice President of Communications with WSIB, says the WSIB is always here to help.
"So we have an excellent team in Windsor of over 170 people who continue to work with people in the community everyday to help them recover and return to work. But since the pandemic, our teams have been primarily working from home, and in the field, in the actual community. They haven't been going to the physical office."
Lazarus says WSIB is still happy to meet with individuals in the community.
"So a lot of the work that we do in the community is actually going into somebody's workplace to help them return to work. So we have a meeting in their own workplace with their manager, with them, to talk about what the options are for how they can return to work, and that's a large chunk of the kind of in-person discussions that we have. And that has always happened in the community, and continues to happen."
Rallies also took place Monday afternoon in Toronto and Thunder Bay.
Lazarus says the official last day in the Windsor WSIB Office was November 30, 2024.
WSIB now only has five operating offices in Ontario, with the closest location being in London.
A statement from WSIB says: "The WSIB is always here to help and we have an excellent team in Windsor who continue to work with people in the community every day to help them recover and return to work.
Since the pandemic, our teams have primarily worked from home and in the community at various worksites. When our lease at our physical location expired earlier this fall, we did not renew it as we evaluate what physical space we need. A notice was placed on the doorway which lets people know how to reach us.
Anyone who needs us can access our services 24/7 online, or by phone from 7:30am to 6:00pm and can meet with us either online or in person in the community."
