By Darren Raye Fonzseau · October 8, 2026
Washington owes injured workers more than a place in a filing cabinet. We need answers, accountability, and enforceable protections when the systems meant to help us cause further harm.
I am an injured worker, a disabled constituent, and a father. For years, I have asked public officials to confront what happens after a worker's body is broken on the job. My question is simple: Who answers for the harm?
My new film puts part of my record in front of the public. It includes actual recordings of encounters at my home, KING 5 reporting, and my call to the Thom Hartmann program about injured workers. These are pieces of a lived experience. I am asking lawmakers and the appropriate reviewing offices to examine them, preserve them, and respond to the concerns I have raised.
Watching people arrive at your home while you are already fighting to be heard leaves a mark on a family. I describe the fear and consequences as I experienced them. My descriptions of who sent or directed particular encounters are my allegations; those questions require records and investigation. The footage is a reason to ask those questions seriously.
Public reporting supplies another part of the record. ProPublica and NPR's 2015 investigation documented the erosion of workers' compensation protections across states.[1] Cascade PBS reported in 2025 that independent medical examiners' opinions can affect treatment, wage replacement, and settlements. Workers and attorneys questioned the exams' independence and accuracy. L&I defended their usefulness, and examiners described difficulties assessing complex cases.[2] A companion investigation examined the money paid to doctors conducting these evaluations.[3]
Those reports do not decide every allegation in my case. They do establish that the concerns I am raising belong in a serious public conversation. A worker's challenge to a medical report deserves a fair review. A family living with the consequences deserves an explanation.
The double standard I want examined is this: institutions can respond urgently when a distressed worker's behavior raises concern. Where is the matching urgency when that worker reports an inaccurate evaluation, an unjust benefits decision, or years of unanswered requests? Investigate both. Apply the same seriousness to the harm alleged by the person at the bottom.
I am making this demand through evidence, writing, music, and film. I want peaceful accountability. I want the people with authority to answer on the record.
Healthcare matters. I support access to care. But healthcare policy must also protect the worker's income, fair evaluation, disability benefits, and access to an effective remedy. Put those protections beside the promise of treatment. Workers and their families need both.
My political demand is a renewed national workers' compensation review and enforceable federal minimum standards. State officials should strengthen the protections they control and publicly press Congress for national action. Federal lawmakers should explain what they will introduce, support, and organize to enact. Publish the proposal. Explain the protections. Give us a plan.
I am asking reviewing offices to preserve my submissions, identify what they will investigate, and explain any jurisdictional limits in writing. If another office is responsible, identify that office and the procedure for reaching it. A referral should help a constituent reach an answer.
I am asking lawmakers of both parties to watch this film and answer three questions:
- What concerns in this record will you take up?
- What specific safeguards and remedies will you support for injured workers?
- What will you do next, and when will you report back?
I have carried these questions for years. My family has lived with the cost. Other workers are carrying their own records, their own pain, and their own unanswered questions.
Put the evidence on the table. Investigate the allegations. Correct what the evidence establishes. Make injured workers' protections a governing commitment.
WE CALL FOUL. Who answers for the harm?
Darren Raye Fonzseau
Workers Won't Be Silent.
Reporting referenced
- ProPublica/NPR, “The Demolition of Workers' Comp”, March 4, 2015.
- Cascade PBS, “The controversial medical exams that help decide WA workers' comp”, August 2025.
- Cascade PBS, “Retired docs earn millions examining injured Washington workers”, August 2025.
The reporting is attributed to its publishers. This op-ed expresses my experience, allegations, and policy demands; it does not assert that those publishers endorsed my individual claims.