Posts tagged unemployment benefits
SEIU Wants Unemployment for Strikers — While Blowing Cash on Billboards
July 23, 2025 // When 1,700 unionized healthcare workers went on strike in the spring of 2023, SEIU 1199 New England had millions in reserve — including a strike fund. But instead of using it to support the walkout, the union spent big on billboards and ads while members lobbied for unemployment benefits to shift the cost onto employers. According to SEIU’s federal LM-2 filings covering July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, the union reported $876,570 in strike benefits along with sitting on almost $22 million in assets. The U.S. Department of Labor defines strike benefits as “all disbursements made to, or on behalf of the members… associated with strikes, work stoppages and lockouts during the reporting period.” In other words, that figure represents the total support SEIU provided its members during the 2023 strike.
Workers striking by choice could lose unemployment benefits in blue states under GOP proposal
July 20, 2025 // Legislation targets policies in Oregon, Washington, New York and New Jersey that provide financial support during strikes The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Aaron Bean, R-Fla.; Mike Kelly, R-Pa.; Blake Moore, R-Utah; Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas; Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y.; and Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas. The governors of both Oregon and Washington signed laws earlier this year allowing for striking workers to receive unemployment benefits.
Sen. Joni Ernst pushes to ban taxpayer-funded union time in One Big Beautiful Bill Act
June 16, 2025 // Approximately $160 million of your money went toward fed workers’ union time as of 2019, the last time such data was available, and Ernst (R-Iowa) has been on a quest for more recent information. Her legislation, dubbed the “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act,” would compel government unions to reimburse taxpayers for all of their taxpayer-backed activities. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) has championed the measure in the House.
Oregon and Washington workers may soon be able to claim unemployment benefits when they go on strike
April 7, 2025 // Oregon’s measure would make it the first state to provide pay for picketing public employees — who aren’t allowed to strike in most states, let alone receive benefits for it. Washington’s would pay striking private sector workers for up to 12 weeks, starting after at least two weeks on the line.
‘Puts everything we hold dear at risk’: Libbey Glass workers frustrated after 6 months of contract negotiations
March 18, 2025 // "If people vote to strike, there will be no strike pay, there will be no unemployment," the employee said. "What's going to happen? Are they eventually going to close the plant or what?" they added. "Anything could happen. Look what's happened with other places that have closed. Our plant manager has closed plants before, so what's going to happen with us? It's scary." That employee said many people they know are looking to find other jobs, worried about their job security.
Lawmakers Will Consider Unemployment Benefits for Striking Workers
February 3, 2025 // Senate Bill 916, written at the request of the AFL-CIO of Oregon, would amend current Oregon law, which deems strikers ineligible for unemployment. The bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing but has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Labor and Business. Given that the committee’s chair, state Sen. Kathleen Taylor (D-Portland), is one of the bill’s chief sponsors, it is highly likely to get an airing. It doesn’t hurt that the labor group that requested the bill, the AFL-CIO, represents 288 unions, which in turn represent more than 300,000 Oregon workers.
Connecticut’s Nonsensical Plan to Subsidize Strikes
January 17, 2025 // A proposed workers' rights bill will worsen Connecticut's affordability crisis and ignite labor unrest. Proposals to provide striking workers with unemployment benefits and set arbitrary regulations for warehouse workers threaten Connecticut’s economic future. On January 14, two bills advanced in the Labor Committee that might well be the spark that ignites widespread labor unrest, even as the push imposes heavier burdens on our state’s consumers and taxpayers.
Pa. bill would give Uber, other app drivers benefits, but critics say they would lose more
October 6, 2024 // For years, labor advocates like the NELP have challenged app-based companies’ assertion that their drivers are independent contractors, arguing instead that they meet the threshold of being full-fledged employees covered by state unemployment and workers’ compensation and potentially be eligible for employer-sponsored healthcare and other benefits. Companies like Uber have argued that drivers are contractors because they aren’t required to accept any specific fare, and many prefer the flexibility of working gig-to-gig.
Boeing drama: Imagine if a recent proposal to pay striking workers UI benefits had become law
October 1, 2024 // Giving UI benefits to striking workers would create an imbalance between business and labor, make strikes more frequent and lengthy, increase costs and services for consumers and hurt other workers in the state who are told they can rely on unemployment benefits. Giving fund dollars to people choosing not to work should offend all Washington state workers. These union-favor bills failed to pass the finish line in the last moments of the 2024 session, but big labor promises the policy proposal will be back. I hope lawmakers aren’t into it, especially after being able to clearly see what a Boing strike could do to the fund.
Fury as one of America’s oldest companies slashes jobs in the Midwest as it shifts work to Mexico: ‘It’s greed’
June 30, 2024 // The layoffs come after 10,000 unionized John Deere workers went on strike for five weeks in October 2021. The strikes were among the most prominent during 'Striketober', where thousands of workers from Nabisco, Kellogg's, McDonald's and others walked out for weeks or even months to protest low pay in the wake soaring company profits.