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Kentucky Union Members Take Fight for Jobs, Jobless Aid to McConnell’s Doorstep |
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Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his Senate cohorts who have flipped off long-term jobless workers by blocking unemployment insurance (UI) extensions and jobs legislation are enjoying a pleasant week off, with pay. Meanwhile, 250,000 workers this week and 1.7 million since June 1 have lost their UI lifeline.
Yesterday in Louisville, union activists led by the Kentucky State AFL-CIO marched and rallied outside McConnell’s office demanding McConnell lift the blockade on jobless aid and job creation. Says Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan:
We are calling for Sen. McConnell to reverse his votes against assistance to jobless workers and funds for job creation and take immediate action to get our economy back on track. The message at events like this across the country is loud and clear: Working people won’t stand for elected officials who play politics with people’s livelihoods.
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Kentuckian Brenda Johnson got her final unemployment check last week. She’s applied for hundreds of jobs in the past 16 months, with no luck. There are five job seekers for every job opening in the nation. She told WDRB TV:
It’s so hard right now to find a job. I’m not used to this, I don’t want to be begging….He [McConnell] doesn’t have to worry about where his next meal is or how he’s gong to pay a bill.
Kirk Gillenwaters, a retired member of UAW Local 862, says there is a human toll to losing both a job and unemployment insurance that seems to escape McConnell and the Republicans blocking jobless help.
People have to be concerned about keeping their homes, feeding their families and the continuation of life. But unfortunately, Mitch doesn’t see fit to extend the benefits and doesn’t see the toll it’s taking on the people of Kentucky.
If the Republicans continue to block help for the unemployed, according to the U.S. Labor Department, 3 million workers will be out of benefits by the end of July, when Congress adjourns for the rest of the summer.
Some Republicans say that extending unemployment benefits is a “disincentive” for jobless workers, that they’d rather collect that great big check (about $300 a week on average) than go look for work. Baloney, says the National Employment Law Project (NELP):
[L]ong-term unemployment persists because of the brutality of this economic crisis, not because guaranteed benefits have made the unemployed complacent or less aggressive in searching for a job.
In a statement yesterday, McConnell, through his aides, told the Louisville group he’d just love to extend benefits if it wasn’t for that darned old deficit. Double baloney.
Unemployment benefits are one of the best investments that can be made in a depressed economy. For every dollar spent on benefits, $1.60 is added to the economy, according to NELP.
No other policy has been more effective in supporting the economy during this recession, with benefits being spent directly and immediately on groceries, housing, medical care and other daily needs.
If McConnell and his buddies continue their obstructionist tactics, Londrigan says the jobless are
going to be losing their homes, their livelihoods and they’re going to be a continual drain on the economy if they don’t have unemployment insurance benefits to see them through.
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NELP NEEDS HELP! My wife would rather have a pay check than an unemployment check. But then, the Republicans would rather have the small people pay taxes. So says the late Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley would say.
It was a great demonstration in spite no shade, heat in the upper 90’s, and smothering humidity. It shows how strongly people feel and how ready we are to hit the streets!
Kay Tillow
Nurses Professional Organization
Louisville, KY
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org/
You forgot to quote the one person who was most responsible for the demonstration, Gail Helinger a laid off steelworker (USA) who is about to run out of benefits. She has been maintaining a lunch hour vigil on the sidewalk outside of McConnell’s office and led the group of unemployed who went inside to demand he vote for the extension of benefits.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20107070375
Steve Gahafer, right, and Joe Phelps, center, were among the
protesters Wednesday who urged Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell to support legislation to extend unemployment benefits.
(By Michael Hayman, The Courier-Journal, June 7, 2010)
July 7, 2010
McConnell urged to back extended jobless aid
By Deborah Yetter
dyetter@courier-journal.com
Waving signs, shouting and cheering, marchers called Wednesday on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to support an extension of unemployment benefits.
“I think he needs to give up his pension and his office and try living on unemployment for three months and see how he likes it,” said Gail Helinger, 52, a laid-off factory worker who joined about 50 people in a march and rally outside the federal courthouse that was organized by the Kentucky AFL-CIO and other groups.
A different group sought divine intervention — with a prayer vigil held earlier in the day on the front steps of the courthouse at 6th Street and Broadway, where the Kentucky Republican has his Louisville office.
“We have come to pray and ask God to change our senator’s heart,” said the Rev. Charles Elliott Jr., pastor of King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church, who led the vigil of about a dozen people. “He represents us — the taxpayers make sure his salary is paid.”
Both groups want McConnell to support a move to allow the Senate to vote on continuing the extended unemployment benefits program through the end of November. Under that program, which expired last month, Kentuckians and Hoosiers are eligible for up to 99 weeks of jobless benefits.
McConnell, citing Republicans’ concern about the federal budget deficit, led a successful GOP drive last month to block Senate action on the measure.
McConnell believes Congress should “extend unemployment benefits in a fiscally responsible manner that does not add to our nation’s crushing debt,” said spokesman Robert Steurer.
The latest version of the bill would add $33 billion to the federal budget deficit.
McConnell wasn’t in Louisville Wednesday to witness either event.
But two protesters at the rally, Helinger and George Boyd, visited McConnell’s office in hopes an aide would convey their comments.
“I just plead for him to have compassion for his laid-off constituents in this state,” said Boyd, 62, who lost his job in May 2009 with an agency that helps young people find work. Boyd lost his unemployment benefits this week.
Bradley Atzinger, a field worker for McConnell, agreed to pass the comments on to his boss and assured them McConnell is “committed to passing these benefits in a fiscally responsible manner.”
“It he’s committed, he needs to hurry up,” said Helinger, who has one unemployment check left before her benefits expire.
Kentucky’s unemployment rate is 10.4 percent, according to the most recent numbers available from the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. An extension of unemployment benefits could benefit up to roughly 125,000 people, said Lanny Brannock, a spokesman for the cabinet’s employment and training office.
Without the federal extension, about 75,000 out-of-work Kentuckians will be cut off the unemployment rolls over the next eight weeks. With an extension, about 50,000 people who have lost benefits could get them back, Brannock said.
Wednesday’s rally ended with a march to the nearby state employment office, where protesters handed out leaflets to people waiting to sign up for unemployment benefits. The leaflets urged them to call McConnell’s office in support of the extension.
Helinger said she plans to continue her one-woman protest each day at the corner of 6th and Broadway, where she sits in a folding chair asking passers-by to support extending jobless benefits.
Brenda Johnson, a former mental health worker who lost her job with a nonprofit group 16 months ago, attended Wednesday’s rally in hopes of bringing some attention to the problem. Her unemployment benefits ended this week.
“I just keep praying,” said Johnson, adding that she has signed up for food stamps and won a brief extension to prevent LG&E from cutting off her power. “I think Mitch McConnell is out of touch. It’s kind of hard.”
Reporter Deborah Yetter can be reached at (502) 582-4228.
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