Injured Worker Justice
Imagine not being able to work to feed your family. Imagine your employer denying that you work for him. Imagine losing the camaraderie and support of your colleagues.
Imagine being afraid to get medical attention because of retaliation. Imagine.
This is reality for many injured workers.
Imagine being afraid to get medical attention because of retaliation. Imagine.
This is reality for many injured workers.
Immigrant workers have the highest incidence of workplace accidents, often because unscrupulous employers believe they won't report unsafe conditions. Falls are the number one workplace injury in Massachusetts, and roofing and siding is often done by immigrant workers working for companies that don't provide adequate safety equipment and push workers to work extremely long days.
Our Injured Worker Committee is a community of mutual support as well as an organizing force. We visit each other in the hospital and help each other get to medical follow-up appointments. We meet and discuss our cases and find lots of similarities between them. These similarities form the basis for our organizing campaigns, as we see that negligence on the part of companies is not an accident but is a result of the devaluing of immigrant workers. We are currently pushing for reforms in the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) that will ensure more of a safety net for injured workers, especially when companies deny responsibility.
We need your help!
- A Coalition to Protect Injured workers is an important advocacy space of which we are a part. In the Spring 2024 season we are working to push An Act to Protect Injured Workers through the state legislature. Read more on our blog by navigating to "latest news."
- Our medical accompaniment program is intended to ensure that injured workers without insurance are able to get the best possible care. Accompanists serve as advocates in and out of the doctor's office, and manage the medical treatment of assigned worker(s). If you are interested, fill out our volunteer form.
Our Injured Worker Committee is a community of mutual support as well as an organizing force. We visit each other in the hospital and help each other get to medical follow-up appointments. We meet and discuss our cases and find lots of similarities between them. These similarities form the basis for our organizing campaigns, as we see that negligence on the part of companies is not an accident but is a result of the devaluing of immigrant workers. We are currently pushing for reforms in the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) that will ensure more of a safety net for injured workers, especially when companies deny responsibility.
We need your help!
- A Coalition to Protect Injured workers is an important advocacy space of which we are a part. In the Spring 2024 season we are working to push An Act to Protect Injured Workers through the state legislature. Read more on our blog by navigating to "latest news."
- Our medical accompaniment program is intended to ensure that injured workers without insurance are able to get the best possible care. Accompanists serve as advocates in and out of the doctor's office, and manage the medical treatment of assigned worker(s). If you are interested, fill out our volunteer form.
Injured Workers' Garden - La Huerta - A Horta
a community garden seeking to mend the soul as well as the body
The Injured Workers' Garden / La Huerta / A Horta is a project of the Injured Workers Committee with the goal of contributing to the mental & emotional as well as the physical dimension of the health of workers who have suffered catastrophic injury.
Most of the severely injured workers participating in the Committee were raised in agricultural communities and find real resonance and healing in entering, touching and participating in the community garden. Besides providing healthy foods to families experiencing precipitous drop in income, the Huerta project has brought pleasure and connection that is visible in the faces of the injured workers and their families. The experience of organizing the tasks involved and recruiting family members to participate as well has proved to be powerful in community and leadership-building.
As a supplement to this project, Metrowest Worker Center is partnering with a local CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) program that provides weekly vegetables to injured workers at no cost.
Most of the severely injured workers participating in the Committee were raised in agricultural communities and find real resonance and healing in entering, touching and participating in the community garden. Besides providing healthy foods to families experiencing precipitous drop in income, the Huerta project has brought pleasure and connection that is visible in the faces of the injured workers and their families. The experience of organizing the tasks involved and recruiting family members to participate as well has proved to be powerful in community and leadership-building.
As a supplement to this project, Metrowest Worker Center is partnering with a local CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) program that provides weekly vegetables to injured workers at no cost.
