Sudbury Steelworkers win groundbreaking compensation case for miner’s widow

Though Jean and George Thoms married relatively late in life, they rightfully looked forward to a happy and comfortable retirement together. However, the future they envisioned was shattered by a workplace disease that cut short George’s life.

The couple married and lived in Newfoundland and Labrador shortly after George retired from a 35-year career in the mining industry. George’s career began at the Iron Ore Company of Canada in Labrador City, N.L., before he moved to Sudbury to work at Inco Ltd. (now Vale).

During their earliest days together, Jean recalls, there were troubling signs of things to come for George.

“From the time we were married, I noticed that George always had a cough,” she says. “When I asked him why he was coughing all the time, he said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

Before long, however, concern grew that George was suffering from long-term workplace exposures to substances known to cause life-threatening diseases.

“One day I took George to the hospital, but they couldn’t find anything wrong,” says Jean. “But they didn’t do any extensive testing, of any kind.”

Undeterred, the couple persisted in seeking a diagnosis for George’s health issues.

“Eventually, they sent him to a specialist, and he found something on George’s lung. Until then, George had never heard he had anything like that,” Jean says.

A deadly, but undiagnosed disease

By that point, it had become clear George was suffering from a severe, though undiagnosed, occupational disease, she adds.

“From then on, it was extensive medications. Prednisone on top of Prednisone was pumped into him, and he was on other medications on top of that. But nothing was making any difference. His breathing got worse, and eventually it was so bad that he was using a wheelchair. He was suffering quite a bit.

“He ended up in the hospital, on an oxygen mask, and that’s how he passed away.”

George died on May 24, 2024.

Seven months prior to his death, in October 2023, with his condition worsening, George sought help from his union – United Steelworkers Local 6500 in Sudbury.

George and Jean were frustrated that his illness was not being properly diagnosed and was still not recognized as an occupational disease. This meant that George would not qualify for benefits and treatment through the workers’ compensation system.

Of greater concern for George, recognizing the implications of his rapidly deteriorating condition, was that his wife could be left widowed and without the benefits to which she was entitled, recalls Sean Staddon, USW Local 6500 Compensation Officer.

“That’s what worried George the most, whether Jean would be taken care of,” says Staddon.

“Virtually every time we have a case like this, we hear the same thing from our member who is affected. They’re not thinking about themselves. They want to make sure their spouse, their family, is going to be taken care of. They want to know the union is going to be there to fight for them.”

A point of pride

There is no legal obligation on a union to assume the time and expense of pursuing a compensation claim for a retiree and/or their surviving spouse, notes Local 6500 President Ray Hammond.

However, it has long been a point of pride for Local 6500 to do just that, Hammond says.

“When there is a legitimate claim of occupational disease, we see it as our duty to represent former members in these vulnerable situations. Otherwise, they’re left on their own to figure it out,” he says.

“Our union has decades of experience and expertise that is needed to fight for such cases.”

Local 6500 stepped up to help George pursue his case with Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

“George was certain that what he was breathing in, back in the day, had contributed to his ongoing lung conditions and constant hospitalizations,” says Staddon. “The doctors couldn’t agree on what exactly his lung condition was – sarcoidosis, silicosis, pneumonia, asthma. What he was being told was always kind of changing.”

Local 6500 compiled key evidence going back decades, including George’s job histories, workplace exposures to substances and hazards, and records from hospitals and other medical providers in several communities and jurisdictions. They persuaded the WSIB to submit George’s claim to a formal adjudicative process.

Local 6500 argued that, despite the absence of an official medical diagnosis, the evidence pointed to George having contracted interstitial lung disease, in particular silicosis, as a result of workplace exposures, primarily to diesel particulate and silica.

Early in the process, Jean Thoms recalls, she had doubts that justice would prevail.

Faith in his union

“I was a bit skeptical at first, because these things take so much time and they’re so complicated,” Jean says. “But George always had an awful lot of faith in his union. He had no faith in anything else, only in his union. He said his union was the best place to go.”

When George died in 2024, the claim before the WSIB remained unresolved. But there was no question that Local 6500 would continue to fight for official recognition of George’s occupational disease.

“We continued to work with Jean and to push the WSIB to continue with its investigation and adjudication, even though obtaining the information we needed was challenging,” says Staddon.

As the process unfolded, Jean came to better understand her husband’s faith in his union.

“I was with George in all the discussions he had with the union, and I started to have a lot of confidence in what they were doing. Especially with Sean, he was a great help to us,” Jean says.

“Even after George passed away, I was really impressed at how they carried on with it, at how far they were going to help me.”

As the case dragged on at the WSIB, economic uncertainty over her future prompted Jean to sell her home and move in with family.

“When George passed, there was nothing there for me. I sold the house we had in Carbonear (N.L.), and I went to live with my son in Goose Bay.”

“It means so much”

In late 2025 – two years after the union first stepped in to help, and 18 months after George’s death – the WSIB issued a decision, accepting the claim of occupational disease. Just before Christmas, Jean received a lump-sum settlement and learned she would receive a survivor’s pension and benefits for the rest of her life.

“It means so much,” Jean says. “What the union has done for me is remarkable, it really is. Just remarkable.”

The George Thoms case could be the first of its kind in Ontario, in that the claim succeeded in the absence of a medical diagnosis of occupational disease, or even a clear supportive statement from doctors of an occupational link to an illness. Local 6500 leaders are not aware of any other such ruling, though the WSIB does not publish all of its decisions on such claims.

Regardless, “this ruling is a real breakthrough by our union,” says Kevon Stewart, USW District 6 Director (Ontario and Atlantic Canada).

“This is a major victory that is the result of decades of work by the Steelworkers, at all levels,” Stewart says. “All of the knowledge and evidence our union has amassed over time allowed us to make the case for this award. It’s a credit to everyone involved.”

A version of this article is published in the USW@Work magazine- Summer 2026

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