Flynn urged to carry out GE promise

Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal says he and Labour Minister Kevin Flynn are determined “to bring justice and closure” to former workers of General Electric who developed cancer after exposure to more than 3,000 toxins in the workplace.

“I’m not going to stop until we get it resolved,” Leal said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s important to this community – so important.”

For years, people who worked at GE have been developing cancer – and many of them have said it was from exposure to toxic chemicals at the plant. Yet many have been denied compensation from Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

In May, a report stated that between 1945 and 2000, workers at GE in Peterborough were exposed to more than 3,000 toxins - at least 40 of which were carcinogens.

The report was written by two retired occupational health researchers, Bob and Dale DeMatteo, with help from 10 retirees from the GE plant, and sponsored by Unifor (the plant workers’ union).

When the report was released, Flynn said he would seek an “expedited” system for these former workers to access compensation from WSIB. That hasn’t happened yet.

Bob DeMatteo wrote in a letter to The Examiner on Tuesday that people are rapidly dying while Flynn has yet to produce “concrete results” of his promises.

“Sorry, Minister, but having a slew of meetings without producing some master plan for dealing expeditiously with the GE file is not good enough,” he wrote.

But Leal and Flynn both stated this week that they are continuing to work on it – and that progress is being made.

Leal said on Tuesday that he’s convinced Flynn will carry out his promise; if Flynn made a commitment, he will not rest until it’s fulfilled.

Leal also said the action will set a precedent for other workers in Ontario who were sickened by workplace toxins.

“Any decision on the GE case will help many others across Ontario,” Leal said. “It will be a landmark decision. A landmark!”

That decision can’t come fast enough for Sue James.

James co-ordinated the effort to get the report written. She worked in payroll at GE for years. Her father worked there too – he died of cancer.

She said politicians’ promises “have amounted to nothing” so far.

Former workers are terminally ill; people are dying as they await compensation.

“The likelihood of sick workers seeing something happen gets slimmer and slimmer,” James said. “We’re running out of time to get this completed.”

Local advocates, formers workers and their families packed a union office earlier this month for a meeting about the situation and discuss next steps.

James said she’d like to see Leal or Flynn show up at one of these public meetings and “address the people”. Yet Flynn wrote in a letter to The Examiner that he’s met personally with representatives of the GE workers four times over the past six months – and there are further meetings planned.

“Progress is being made,” he wrote. “We are continuing to review all the options before us to determine how best to achieve a just resolution.”

Marion Burton is a co-chairwoman of a local group of advocates that has been meeting with Flynn to seek compensation for the former GE workers.

“We still believe that the Minister (Flynn) is working to bring justice to Peterborough workers – we haven’t given up hope,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

Burton said they are still lobbying for “presumptive entitlement” for the former workers.

That would mean people who worked at GE between 1945 and 2000 and later developed cancer would be automatically entitled to compensation.

Right now, the onus is on former workers to prove their cancer came from exposure to toxins in the workplace.

Burton says that shouldn’t be, given that GE was a “toxic soup” of chemicals before it was scrubbed clean in 2000.

Presumptive entitlement is needed, she said.

“It’s the only way to swiftly being justice to workers and their families in Peterborough.”