A TV Reporter Tackles Workers’ Comp
In the decade and a half or more than I have known Rick Kupchella of KARE-TV in Minneapolis, he has always been attracted to stories that are complex and tough to tell. I have seen him try to explain community sprawl, how long-distance phone companies price their plans and how Ticketmaster works. I have seen him explore stories like global warming and alcoholism. That is not the stuff that local TV gets stereotyped as covering, is it?
I asked Rick what story we should all consider taking on and he points us to a big one: workers' compensation. He explains in today's guest column:
One of the issues I've covered at KARE repeatedly over the years focuses on the inadequacies/inequalities of the workers' compensation system in my home state of Minnesota and throughout the nation.
Congressional sources peg the number of work-related fatalities in this country at 6,000 a year, with millions more injured.
Injured workers -- or survivors of those killed -- really cannot sue a company for wrongful death. The workers' compensation system involves its own judges, in its own courts, with its own laws.