Labor & Employment Law

100,000 Petition Congress to Renew UI

By James Parks

Workers today delivered petitions with 100,000 signatures to the Senate demanding that Congress extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to millions of long-term jobless workers.  

In a telephone press conference this morning, Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who received the petitions, said they expect the Senate to take up an extension of UI benefits, but they have not yet gotten a date from the leadership.

You can act now to help the nation?s 6.2 million jobless. Call 1-877-662-2889 and ask for your senator?s office and then tell the person who answers the phone:

Across America, unemployment is at record levels. Emergency benefits for workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks are scheduled to expire Nov. 30. I urge you to renew them immediately!

Then log your calls here.

Time is running out. If lawmakers don?t act by Nov. 30, 800,000 people unable to  find work in an economy with five job hunters for every one job will lose this critical help that keeps a roof over their heads and food on the table. By the end of the year, 2 million jobless will be without help and another 1 million a month will lose their benefits beginning next year.

Renewing the UI benefits will help workers like Pat McNamara, who lost her job with the city of Philadelphia in August 2009. Despite applying for hundreds of jobs, she has only been able to find temporary work for a couple of weeks.  Now at age 61, her $496-a-week unemployment check is her only source of income. She has not had health insurance since she was laid off. She told the press conference:

I?m counting on Congress to do the right thing. We need decent paying jobs before anyone thinks of cutting our unemployment benefits.

Extending unemployment insurance would provide an immediate and necessary boost to our economy, Reed said, but congressional Republicans are trying to ?rewrite economics and reality.?

On the one hand they want to provide $700 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but not pay for them. On the other hand they demand that unemployment benefits for the middle class be paid for. It?s kind of like someone on a diet ordering a Diet Coke and a Big Mac simultaneously.

Renewing the insurance also will boost the economy, Casey said. He pointed to a  new study, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor, that shows the UI program had an even more positive impact on the economy this time around than in previous recessions. For example, every dollar spent on UI generated $2 in economic activity, and during each quarter of the recent recession, UI benefits kept an average of 1.6 million Americans on the job.

The petition drive was sponsored by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and supported by the AFL-CIO, Working America, USAction, MomsRising, Color of Change and many other groups.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 17, 2010 (boomark / email).