Labor & Employment Law

Kentucky Union Members Take Fight for Jobs, Jobless Aid to McConnell?s Doorstep

By Mike Hall

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.

Click here and here for television coverage of the protest.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).