Jobless Facing UI Cut Off Ask Lawmakers ‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’
Starting tomorrow and continuing next week, jobless workers in 15 states who face cut off of their unemployment insurance (UI) Feb. 29 will ask members of Congress to “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.”
The mobilization is aimed at lawmakers who are back in their districts for the President’s Day Recess that begins tomorrow, and it’s a partnership between USAction, the AFL-CIO, the National Employment Law Project (NELP), community and other groups.
If the Feb. 29 deadline passes without Congress taking action to extend UI coverage, 1.2 million jobless workers will lose their benefits by the end of March and 3.3 million by the June. (Click here tell your congressional representatives to act now.)
In a telephone press conference today, Gary Polvinale, an Ohio IT manager who has been out of work nearly a year said,
Congress is doing something corporations do, exploiting and bullying the helpless. We need them to act now So we can survive until till can find something. Read the rest of this entry »
House Republicans Renew Attack on Jobless Workers, UI Benefits
In December, after being battered in the arena of public opinion, House Republicans reluctantly agreed to a short extension of unemployment insurance (UI) for the nation’s jobless workers. That reprieve runs out Feb. 29 and House Republicans are set to relaunch their attack on UI.
A conference is now underway between the Senate and House over two very different one-year extensions of the UI program passed late last year and the Republican bill would “slash federal benefits, impose harsh new restrictions and move to dismantle the essential lifeline of unemployment insurance,” writes Mitchell Hirsch of the National Employment Law Project (NELP).
Among other things the Republican UI bill would: Read the rest of this entry »
Time to Ring In…2001?
Maybe a lot has changed in the past decade–back then we didn’t have YouTube to bring us hours of enjoyment of cute babies and kittens–but working men and women today are taking home about the same size paychecks we did back then.
Take a look at the National Employment Law Project’s new video–and have a safe and happy New Year 2001.
House Republicans Take Off for the Holidays, Shaft Jobless Workers
Fearing they didn’t have the votes to defeat a bipartisan Senate compromise that would extend unemployment insurance (UI) for long-term jobless workers and a payroll tax cut for workers, Republican House leaders scuttled a vote on the bill today. Then they left town for the holidays. Both the UI program and the tax cut expire Dec. 31.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) previously indicated he supported the compromise that passed the Senate 89-10 with 39 Republican votes. However, when the Republican tea party wing vociferously objected, he changed his tune and opposed the bill. Republican leaders then blocked an up or down vote and 229 Republicans voted to kill Senate bill through parliamentary trickery.
Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), says that the compromise was negotiated “with the involvement and blessing of the Speaker of the House.” She also says that Senate bill rebuffed attempts in an earlier House bill that scapegoated unemployed workers and “enacted dangerous changes to the basic UI program which undermined its very purpose and effectiveness.”
While a two-month deal is not ideal, time is running out to protect the unemployed from being victims of the worst partisan games Congress has ever seen. Congress is preparing to recess for five weeks. By the time members return to D.C. to begin negotiations anew, close to 1.8 million long-term unemployed will lose their only life-line. As Speaker Boehner well knows, this stalling tactic virtually guarantees that benefits for the long-term unemployed, those already hit hardest by the recession and slow recovery, will lapse for a dangerously long period of time.
Republicans Vote Big Cuts to Jobless Benefits
House Republicans tonight voted (234-193) to cut more than in half the number of weeks jobless workers can collect unemployment insurance (UI) benefits next year. The bill also cuts pay for public employees, cuts preventive health services, reduces premium assistance for low- and middle-income individuals buying health insurance and raises premiums for many Medicare beneficiaries.
A new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) says the legislation:
abandons millions of U.S. workers and those communities hardest hit by the most severe jobs crisis since the Great Depression.
While the legislation extends the federal UI program that is set to expire Dec. 31, the huge reduction in weeks of benefits and other changes in the UI program are “reckless and irresponsible,” says NELP Executive Director Christine Owens.
To jobseekers and states hit hard by long-term unemployment, this proposal offers a cold cynical shrug. Anyone serious about helping workers and businesses get going again needs to know that is neither a serious nor acceptable way forward.
The bill also extends the payroll tax cut for workers and employers, but rather than Read the rest of this entry »
Long-term Unemployed Face Lack of Jobs, New Barriers Finding Work
Why can’t the long-term unemployed—6 million of whom will lose their unemployment insurance benefits if Congress does not act before the end of year—find jobs? “Because the jobs aren’t there—not because they are not looking or are unwilling to accept pay cuts or relocate,” Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), told a Senate hearing on long-term joblessness this afternoon.
Testifying before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Owens urged lawmakers to act now.
Congress needs to help create good-paying jobs and reauthorize the unemployment insurance programs slated to expire at the end of the year. Otherwise, millions of workers and their families will continue to fall behind.
Job creation is not keeping up with the demand for work and during the past six months, job growth has just kept pace with population growth, But Owens said:
That is not enough to create the nearly 11 million jobs we need to get back to pre-recession levels. There are still more than four unemployed workers for every job opening.
Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said today’s jobless face new discriminatory barriers to finding work in a broken economy. Read the rest of this entry »
NELP Report Offers State, Local Job Creation Strategies
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A new report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) explores how states and cities can tackle the jobs crisis through innovative strategies that create good jobs and accelerate economic recovery in local communities.
The report says that putting Americans back to work is a “national challenge that requires a strong and adequate national response….But there are also solutions we can deploy at the state and local levels to address the good jobs deficit.”
“Filling the Good Jobs Deficit” presents job creation strategies that emphasize getting workers back on the job quickly while laying the foundation for sustainable economic growth and long-term public good.
We need to emphasize projects that get people repairing and maintaining existing assets over ribbon-cutting opportunities that don’t respond to immediate needs, and we need to select plans for those projects that improve the public health and safety of those who live and work nearby.
CareerBuilder.com Posts New Wave of Discriminatory Job Ads
Mitchell Hirsch at the National Employment Law Project (NELP) writes that online job sites continue to discriminate against unemployed job seekers.
Today, the National Employment Law Project joined Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) and Hank Johnson (Ga.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to receive 250,000 petition signatures calling for an end to hiring policies that discriminate against the unemployed and to call for passage of the Fair Employment Opportunity Act. The bill, also included in President Obama’s American Jobs Act, would prohibit exclusion of the unemployed from job openings. The petition signatures were gathered by USAction, Change.org, ColorofChange.org and CREDO Action and represent Americans from across the country.
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A recent survey of online job sites has shown that CareerBuilder.com continues to post numerous new ads that discriminate against unemployed job-seekers.
The latest examples appear two months after the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a report detailing similarly exclusionary job postings this spring. Since then, federal legislation has been introduced that would ban hiring practices, including job ads, that discriminate against unemployed workers by excluding them from consideration for employment opportunities. As these harmful practices have attracted growing attention, one leading job site—Indeed.com—recently announced it would no longer post such exclusionary ads.
Snyder Slashes Michigan Jobless Aid, Claims it Strengthens Lifeline
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who earlier this year cut corporate taxes by 86 percent while boosting taxes for working families, yesterday signed a bill into law that cuts state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20.
His justification? Maintaining the 26 weeks of help in a state with an official 10.6 jobless would have meant a slight increase in unemployment insurance taxes on businesses.
In what must rank as one of the most disingenuous descriptions ever in the world of political speech, Snyder said:
These benefits are a lifeline for many Michigan families who are struggling in this challenging economy….Now that we have continued this safety net, we must renew our focus on improving Michigan’s economic climate.
His circuitous reasoning went like this. By slashing the number of weeks jobless workers can get state aid, workers presently receiving extended federal benefits can continue to collect those benefits.
Tell Congress: Maintain Unemployment Help, Not Tax Cuts for the Rich
Congress is back in town and back to work today, and its first order of business should be maintaining the emergency unemployment insurance (UI) benefits program that is a lifeline for the millions and millions of long-term jobless workers. If the program is allowed to expire Nov. 30, 800,000 people will immediately lose that vital help to keep a roof over their head, food on the table and medicine in the cabinet—and 2 million will lose their UI by the end of the year.
But a vote on maintaining UI is not even on the congressional calendar. In fact, Republicans are not only expected to fight extending help to the unemployed, they promise to fight just as hard for extending Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, that are also set to expire.
Tomorrow, we need to join the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and other worker advocates and make our voices heard and deliver a loud and clear message to Capitol Hill.
Congress must act now and maintain benefits for the jobless, not extend tax cuts for the rich.
Call your senators toll free at 1-877-662-2889, or click here.
