WORKERS' COMPENSATION FILES, 1924 - 1982, bulk: 1939 - 1982

Summary: Records generated by the Workers' Compensation Committee of the Consumers League of New Jersey. Before 1970, the Committee was named "Workmen's Compensation."

Document types include correspondence, memoranda, copies of state and federal legislation, newsletters, pamphlets, reports, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and some press releases.

Documents the League's campaign to secure a full coverage law for work-related accidents and diseases, largely achieved in 1949. Later files document the League's attempts to eliminate exceptions to the law (such as agricultural workers), to extend the number of years in which compensable illness could appear, and to increase benefits for disabled workers. In 1967-1971, the League campaigned to protect workers in cases of second injury. Along with other organizations such as the AFL-CIO, the League testified in front of federal and state commissions such as the Ozzard, Nimmo, and Debevoise Commissions, which studied the feasibility of changes to the law.

Of particular interest is the earlier portion of the series which documents the League's involvement in securing protection of newsboys, work done on the radium poisoning of watch dial painters, and attempts to include workers in war industries. Also of interest is League work on other industrial diseases, such as silicosis in miners and stonecutters.

This series also contains scrapbooks of news clippings concerning workers' compensation legislation and lawsuits (1969-1982).