A century ago, businesses and workers agreed to the “grand bargain” of workers' compensation. Supported by President Theodore Roosevelt and most business and labor leaders, each state passed laws where workers gave up their rights to sue their employers for work-related injuries. In return for making workers' compensation the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries, employers paid into mandatory, no-fault insurance programs that covered medical care and provided weekly benefits that helped workers get by until they could go back to work.

It's a system that has worked. Sure, there are cases where both sides have abused the process, but workers' compensation works for most people, most of the time.

However, in recent years, workers' compensation has been under attack as never before. Now the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers' Compensation (ARAWC), a national lobbying group backed by some of the most powerful companies in American business, wants to cripple the traditional workers' compensation system. Tennessee and South Carolina are top targets for the lobbying group, and the organization's website displays an article that says it has narrowed its focus to Southeastern states that also include Georgia, Alabama, Florida and North Carolina.