This year, International Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) Awareness Day takes place just after the snap Ontario provincial election. CUPE Ontario and the Injured Workers Advocacy Committee are working with allies to hold the Ford Conservatives to account for their failure to protect workers.
Deliberate and chronic underfunding of public services by Conservatives, combined with wage suppression legislation that violated workers’ rights, have led to a staffing crisis throughout the broader public sector. This underfunding has increased workloads dramatically and, as a consequence, increased the rate of repetitive strain experienced by workers. RSIs represent about 50% of all lost-time days in Ontario and 40% of all lost-time claims approved by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
Because International RSI Awareness Day also takes place at the end of Black History Month, it is also critical to note that many jobs done by workers who suffer repetitive strain injuries are jobs with high numbers of Black and racialized workers; often those workers are predominantly women. Our union’s commitment to recognizing Black history must include a commitment to fighting racism and speaking up about the realities facing Black and racialized workers in our workplaces.
No worker should have to live with chronic pain because of the work they do. As trade unionists, we use RSI Awareness Day as an occasion to look to the roots of the condition and its prevention and to demand better for those who are affected by RSI. And elections provide a powerful way to hold government accountable for its failure to protect workers.
CUPE Ontario and the Injured Workers Committee are committed to fighting to protect workers who are at risk of RSI or who suffer from it. Improved working conditions, education and prevention are key to fighting this debilitating condition and your workplace’s Joint Health and Safety Committee and health and safety representatives are key allies.
On this day of awareness, we encourage members to review the Injured Workers Committee RSI Newsletter and CUPE’s factsheet on RSI and visit the recommended sites for more information. And we urge all members to remain committed to the political advocacy work we do together in CUPE Ontario. Together, we will continue to demand improvements that protect against repetitive strain and that further support those workers living with this all-too-common yet preventable condition.
