Phil Cohen War Stories: ‘Jessie’ Fights Corruption in Workers’ Comp System…
Editor’s Note: Phil Cohen is a union organizer and author who’s seen a lot during his many years in the labor movement. He has graciously agreed to share some of his “War Stories” with Work-Bites. Here is the first installment in an ongoing series…
On August 11, 2018, I attended a victory picnic in Eden, North Carolina with members of Workers United Local 294-T. We were celebrating the defeat of their employer’s illegal union busting plot at the Mohawk Industries plant where they worked. Committee members tended the grills. Some brought side dishes.
During mid-afternoon, a woman appearing in her late thirties arrived with two teenage sons, walking toward an unoccupied corner table in the rear. I approached her table to introduce myself and she invited me to sit. Her name was Jessie Dotson. I’d never encountered her while touring the plant because she’d been cloistered in a small office on light duty due to a shoulder injury sustained at work. I requested the details and asked if she had a lawyer.
Jessie began sharing her ordeal, speaking quickly in a disjointed, animated monologue while she gobbled burgers and raised her phone to engage an anti-union employee in a heated debate via Facebook Messenger. I interrupted several times to focus her on my questions and help establish a timeline. Jessie worked as a creel hand, preparing yarn for carpet weaving looms. It involved lifting heavy spools of yarn and placing them on and off spindles approximately 200 times during a twelve hour shift.
The problem with her shoulder had slowly evolved over time from occasional discomfort to severe pain and lack of mobility. It was the most common form of injury found in industrial facilities: ergonomic. The repetitive motion inherent in many jobs gradually wears down a person’s joints until they become disabled, impacting wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and backs. Like other on-the-job injuries, this is covered by workers’ compensation.
Workers’ comp is an insurance policy similar to automobile insurance. Companies are required to be insured and premiums rise with each successful claim. When multiplied against the number of workers in a national corporation, rising premiums result in serious red ink on balance sheets. Employers are therefore ruthless in seeking to minimize exposure. Ergonomic injuries are often discredited as having preexisted employment or originated at home. When a doctor authenticates an injury as job related, management reduces liability by feigning concern for the employee, while failing to inform them of their rights.
Jessie had obtained sufficient medical documentation. Mohawk was paying her doctor bills and providing work in an office with minimal assignments. I asked if she’d filed a workers’ comp claim and was told Elise (the human resources manager) hadn’t offered one.
“The company never does,” I told her. “They’re not doing you any favors. If they put you on workers’ comp leave, the insurance company would have to pay two-thirds of your wages. They’d rather pay you full salary for doing nothing than have their insurance rating lowered. Management acts like your best friend covering the deductibles in your medical insurance. But your case sounds like you’re probably entitled to big money they’d rather you not know about.”
“Elise called me into her office and told me she’d contacted my doctor and he said I could go back to work. That’s not what it says on the form I got from my doctor and I told her so.”
“Good for you for sticking up for yourself,” I told her, “but let me explain your rights and what you should do. Take someone from the committee with you up to the office and request a workers’ comp form. Elise is required by law to give you one.”
Filing a workers’ comp claim invokes a menu of entitlements that can change an injured worker’s life, but are costly to employers. Every body part has been assigned a monetary value. Following medical treatment and rehab, employees are given a disability rating. If an index finger is fully lost, the person gets its full value. If impaired but still functional, she gets the amount specified by her partial disability rating.
“It’s kind of grisly,” I told Jessie, “but we’re talking about some serious money.”
Having a claim on file also means if an employee returns to work feeling better, but years later the injury resurfaces, the company’s insurance remains liable, even if the person is working elsewhere. The North Carolina Industrial Commission enforces regulations and adjudicates disputes in our state. The process of negotiating settlements with insurance companies or litigating before the Commission is complicated and requires an attorney specializing in this area. I offered Jessie the phone number of Hank Patterson, with whom I’d worked throughout my career.
“I thought of doing all that,” she said, “but then a woman I work with told me if I did I’d have a bulls-eye painted on my back. I can’t afford to lose my job.”
I explained that retaliation for exercising workers’ comp rights was illegal. It might happen in nonunion plants but not here. She’d suffered a lot from doing her job and was legally entitled to compensation.
“Hey ma,” her eldest son interjected. “Maybe they’ll end up paying you a thousand dollars!”
“I can’t make any promises,” I said, “but it will probably be a hell of a lot more than that.”
I remained assigned to the Mohawk plant to rebuild the collective bargaining relationship and make sure management didn’t resume its efforts to undermine the local. Jessie filed her claim, was being represented by Hank, and had shoulder surgery.
Toward the end of October, I stopped for gas following a labor-management meeting and received a text from Jessie:
“I know you was meeting with the company this morning. I was wondering if you had time to meet with me. I have some serious questions to ask. You seem to take me serious. I thought I could show you the paperwork I have.”
I called and told her I hadn’t eaten since breakfast but she was welcome to join me at Ruby Tuesday for lunch. She lived in a small town thirty miles away and I waited in the parking lot for forty-five minutes. Finally, a white truck pulled in beside me and Jessie exited.
I ordered my usual turkey burger but Jessie felt uncomfortable being treated to lunch. I told her eating alone would make me “feel like a pig” and the union was paying, so she finally requested a breaded pork chop. She pulled a tablet from her purse and began deftly opening scanned documents. I realized she was probably more tech savvy than me.
Jessie had been on leave of absence following her surgery and was still in considerable pain. She believed the amount of her weekly workers’ comp check was too low and worse, payments had stopped arriving weeks ago. The bank was threatening to foreclose on her house.
The formula for calculating workers’ comp payments is simple on its face: two-thirds of average weekly earnings. However, there are numerous variables than can positively or negatively impact that amount. Jessie was only receiving $314 relative to her previous $600 paychecks. She also wasn’t being reimbursed for travel expenses to physical therapy. It appeared she was being underpaid and I promised to call Hank Patterson. I reminded her that the really big money would be coming next year when she received her disability rating.
Jessie asked a number of other questions regarding her situation, pulling up related documents on her tablet. I’d never seen union staff more organized in tracking a case and raising pertinent concerns.
“I should have been a lawyer,” she told me.
“What you could be is a shop steward when you get back to work. I’ll train the hell out of you, as much as you want. Once you have some experience, you might get yourself elected to the committee and sit across the table from management.”
I called Hank Patterson that evening and within two weeks, Jessie’s workers’ comp payments were increased to their full amount and the shortfall was paid in a lump sum. It appeared as though our mission had been accomplished, pending final settlement discussions…Part II Next!
Phil Cohen spent 30 years in the field as Special Projects Coordinator for Workers United/SEIU, and specialized in defeating professional union busters. He’s the author of Fighting Union Busters in a Carolina Carpet Mill and The Jackson Project: War in the American Workplace.