I am supposed to be in Portland, Oregon this morning. I should be having breakfast in my hotel, the Hyatt Place Portland Airport/Cascade Station, and then getting in my rental car and driving to Salem, where I would have the opportunity to lunch with SAIF employees as well as John and Kim Plotkin. Yes, I…
SAIF Saga: Even the Salem Witches Got a Trial
I’ve made reference previously comparing the Plotkin/SAIF saga to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The fundamentals for those persecutions were eerily similar to those in the termination debacle that has unfolded in the Oregon city of that name. It was probably, in retrospect, an unfair comparison. The witches, after all, actually got a trial…
SAIF Employees, Monday is Looking to be a Little Rough
I will likely be publishing more documents Monday related to the termination of John Plotkin, and I am speculating that many of you who have been following this story will not be happy with what you see. While we are still going through the latest batch, some important points are beginning to stand out: There…
UnSAIF At Any Level: Plotkin Accuser Identities Spell Troubling Tale
We now generally know the identities of those people who complained about John Plotkin's “salty” and offensive language, and it tells a troubling tale for what is happening in that organization. Plotkin, CEO for Oregon state fund SAIF, was terminated at a contentious board meeting in May for “using inappropriate language with employees”. Over one…
Proposing an SSDI Going Out of Business Bake Sale
An extremely well written article from David Langham graces our Blogwire pages today. In it he recounts for us the looming financial collapse of the Social Security Disability Income program, or SSDI. Langham is the Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims for the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims and Division of Administrative Hearings.…
Eating Seafood Can Be Hazardous to Someone's Health
I have never been a huge seafood enthusiast. I like shrimp and lobster tail, and will eat tuna fish and mild whitefish, but I rarely pine for seafood. I'm more of a red meat kind of guy. Maybe that is a good thing, because it sounds like harvesting and preparing traditional seafood is just downright…
More Documents, Phone Calls and Practicing SAIF Sex
Not to mislead, but the only sex in this story is metaphorical, yet apropos given the circumstances. It turns out there is a difference between “practicing safe sex” and “practicing SAIF sex”. Those “practicing safe sex” have taken precautions to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies resulting from intimate sexual contact. Those…
Tennessee Kicks Off Major Workers' Comp Changes with Sell Out Conference Crowd
I had the distinct pleasure of speaking Thursday morning as the Keynote presenter at the 17th Annual Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference in Nashville. Tennessee is on the precipice of launching the most dramatic reforms to its workers compensation system seen in many years, and this sold out conference was largely focused on educating the…
A Plotkin Petition Request
A short update and request: As you likely know, I have had an opinion or two on the firing of CEO John Plotkin by the board of Oregon State workers’ comp fund SAIF. I have never focused on a single topic as much as this one, having written 10 articles in the course of a…
SAIF Records Are Missing Number Two…..
Documents that tell a tale of termination are slowly, glacially, dripping out of SAIF in response to various Public Records Requests, and they shed an interesting light on the back story involving the entire sordid tale recounted here over the last month. First and foremost, it appears many of the employees at SAIF were on…