Coalition’s work pays off with cash for state’s jobless

By Teresa Mosquada

PSARA joined this session with activists for labor, housing, hunger relief, children and working families under the United for Washington’s Families Coalition to call for vital improvements in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system. After weeks of debate and negotiation, the Legislature approved legislation during the first week of February addressing both taxes and benefits in our UI system.  While not everything the coalition called for, the final bill will result in immediate enhanced cash benefits for UI recipients. 

The coalition had called for a CHILDREN'S BENEFIT FOR UI RECIPIENTS, an additional $15 per week for each child in a family, up to a maximum of $50 per week to help unemployed parents put food on the table, pay the mortgage, and perhaps put gas in the car to drive to job interviews. 

The Children’s Benefit was a good idea not only for UI families, but also for the state’s economic recovery.  Every dollar of UI benefits spent generates two dollars of economic activity. The Children’s Benefit would have helped about 167,000 unemployed workers – one-third of all Washington UI recipients.

When late-stage negotiations failed to produce a new cash benefit, we didn’t give up. Thanks to the coalition’s persistence, House Bill 1091 provided, for all new families on UI, a $25 increase in their weekly benefit starting in March.  This cash increase would not have happened without the support and advocacy of PSARA and the large coalition demanding more substantial benefits for UI recipients to help their families weather this recession. 

While not everything the coalition wanted, House Bill 1091 will provide permanent, immediate tax reductions for small business, leverage federal incentive money by bolstering our training benefits, allow Washington unemployed workers to continue to receive federal extended benefits AND provide immediate relief to families with a temporary $25 per week increase in benefits for new claimants starting in March. 

"Any time you put additional dollars on the kitchen table for struggling unemployed workers and their families, it is a good thing," said Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council. "But the greatest disappointment, and missed opportunity, of these bills is that they do not allow those currently unemployed to receive the additional $25 a week. These workers are the long-term unemployed, whose resources have been stretched beyond all reasonable limits."

Getting an additional $25 on the kitchen table for Washington workers will provide some immediate relief to new UI recipients between March and November this year, and that enhanced amount will continue throughout the life of their claim.  This extra $100 per month will have an immediate beneficial effect, as it will create twice the purchasing power to boost local businesses, even as it enables families to put food on the table.

Our growing coalition looks forward to working with PSARA on the many issues that unite us in protecting and advancing the rights of workers and their families in Washington.

Helpful resources on the latest UI bill actions:

·        Outside the Echo Chamber - http://www.wslc.org/reports/Outside-EC3.htm

·        Tuesday WSLC update - http://www.wslc.org/legis/11lu0208.htm

·        Publicola’s coverage of the Senate vote - http://publicola.com/2011/02/04/senate-dems-pass-ui-tax-break-bill-dependent-benefits-future-unknown/#

·        Publicola’s into to the issue - http://publicola.com/2011/01/13/state-labor-council-wants-more-balanced-approach-on-unemployment-insurance-fix/

 

New coalition will work to strengthen Social Security

“Social Security Works / Washington.”

That’s the name adopted by a new statewide coalition determined to defend and improve Social Security in the face of the gravest threat to its integrity in the 75 years since it was signed into law.

Initiated by a nucleus of labor, women’s and retiree groups, including the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, the coalition is reaching out to the many varied organizations that recognize the unique role of Social Security in preventing poverty and in uniting our people across the generations.

The coalition was organized in response to appointment of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a majority of whose 18 members have signaled that they’re prepared to bleed the Social Security trust fund to reduce the federal budget deficit. (Readers will find background information on the commission on pages 5 and 10.)

The coalition will carry the campaign to every Congressional candidate, incumbent or aspirant, across the state, asking each to sign a pledge to defend the full range of Social Security benefits, to work to improve them, and to oppose all efforts to raid its trust fund for deficit reduction.

A broad national coalition, the “Strengthen Social Security Campaign,” is also in formation. Its founding Steering Committee members represent the AFL-CIO, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Campaign for America’s Future, the Economic Policy Institute, the National Council of Women’s Organizations and Voices for America’s Children, among many other groups.

As its name indicates, the national group intends to take the offensive to make Social Security even better in the protections it affords retirees, persons with disabilities, and survivors. The Washington State coalition has the same approach.

The next meeting of the Social Security Works / Washington coalition will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 14, at the Seattle offices of the Washington State Labor Council, 314 First Avenue West. For information, contact PSARA President Robby Stern at president@psara.org or by phone at (206)448-9646.

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