Posts tagged unemployment benefits
OPINION: FRANK RICCI: Paying People To Strike Makes No Sense
August 14, 2023 // Furthermore, a company’s unemployment experience rating is included as a fiscal cost factored into bids for state, municipal and private construction costs. Unemployment for striking workers will harm company ratings and place upward pressure on the price of goods, as well as our taxes. Rather than using its own funds to assist workers during a strike — a prime justification for its existence — the AFL-CIO is instead encouraging its members to contact their legislators to demand that they pass these bills so that taxpayers and businesses pick up the tab. This legislation places no restriction on union strike funds, so striking workers may collect funds from the unions as well. The result? Workers could be paid more to go and stay on strike than they would have made working — this will incentivize labor unrest.
Termination risks, collecting unemployment: A look at workers rights amid a ‘summer of strikes’
August 7, 2023 // More than 200 strikes have occurred across the U.S. so far in 2023, involving more than 320,000 workers, compared with 116 strikes and 27,000 workers over the same period in 2021, according to data by the Cornell ILR School Labor Action Tracker.
Fetterman introduces bill to allow striking workers to collect SNAP benefits
July 28, 2023 // The Food Secure Strikers Act comes amid a summer wave of union organizing activity — from locomotive plant workers in Erie to Hollywood writers and actors. A strike by newsroom workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fetterman’s hometown newspaper, has been going on for nearly a year. “Every union worker who is walking the picket line this summer needs to know that we have their back here in Washington,” Fetterman said in a statement. “The union way of life is sacred. It’s what built Pennsylvania and this nation. It is critical for us to protect workers’ right to organize, and that includes making sure they and their families have the resources to support themselves while on strike.”
Massachusetts lawmakers propose paying striking workers
July 21, 2023 // Massachusetts State Sen. Paul Feeney recently proposed Senate Bill S1172, which would funnel unemployment benefits to striking workers after thirty days. The bill’s text states that a striking worker “shall be entitled to recover any benefits lost as a result” of going on strike for over 30 days due to a “labor dispute.” It also says that the state of Massachusetts cannot “deny benefits to an otherwise eligible individual who becomes involuntarily unemployed” and “shall receive benefits for the period of his unemployment but in no event beyond the date of the commencement of a strike.” The bill added that “no waiting period or disqualification … shall apply if the labor dispute is caused by the failure or refusal of the employer” to comply with a collective bargaining agreement or contract. Meaning, if the employer caused the strike, the striking worker receives unemployment benefits without delay and without going through a waiting period. S1172’s sponsors are Sen. Paul Feeney and Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa. Feeney proposed a similar bill last year, but it did not make it out of the state Senate’s Ways and Means Committee.
Frank Ricci: CT legislators want unemployment for striking workers
May 25, 2023 // S.B. 938 would upend this balance by forcing businesses to fund striking workers through unemployment. It thereby puts a thumb on the scale in labor’s favor, in a way that no other New England state does — nor do 49 other states, leaving New York as the lone exception. The consequence would be to apply severe financial pressure on employers — both by increasing the duration of strikes and by tapping unemployment, which is a self-contained system paid for by employers and administered by the state. One Stop & Shop worker testified in 2022 that a previous bill with identical requirements was designed to increase employee “leverage” and admitted, “Had we had unemployment benefits to rely on during the 2019 strike, we might’ve been able to stay out longer. The bill places no restriction on union strike funds, however, so striking workers may collect funds from the unions as well. The result? Workers could be paid more to go and stay on strike than they would have made working — this will incentivize labor unrest.
Op-ed: Why Biden’s choice for Labor secretary boggles my mind
March 14, 2023 // California Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, the Democrat who chairs the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, told the LA Times, "(Su) has done a tremendous job on many different initiatives, but she has not done a good job at running the Employment Development Department and, as a result, has wasted billions of dollars and, more importantly, caused heartache for millions of Californians." Su also championed the drive to hike California’s minimum wage, a move wildly popular with her union allies, but one that poured gasoline on the fire burning in the state’s alleys, boosting retail prices, moving home ownership beyond the reach of even more state residents and forcing businesses to lay off low-skilled workers they could no longer afford to employ.
Biden Taps Scandal-Plagued Official to Lead Labor Department
March 1, 2023 // As California's secretary of labor, Su oversaw billions of dollars in fraudulent payments through the state's unemployment system, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The extensive fraud, broken websites, and more than a million unprocessed claims in the California system led to bipartisan criticism in Su's 2021 Senate confirmation hearing. "California is not a model to emulate for the rest of the country," said then-senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.). "What's worse about the fraud committed on California and the U.S. taxpayer is that it was entirely preventable." The Senate narrowly approved Su's nomination in a 50-47 vote. Su’s appointment satisfies the Biden administration's need for diversity, the AP reported:
Watchdogs say federal unemployment fraud likely topped $191 billion
February 9, 2023 // Michael Horowitz, chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told the House Ways and Means Committee that the fraud was not limited to U.S. residents. "One of the biggest challenges we have is following the fraud through overseas gang activity and fraudsters," Horowitz said. "The Secret Service has reported that they've seen that occur through entities in Nigeria, China, Russia. That will be our biggest challenge." U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida, asked for an estimate of how much that type of fraud cost U.S. taxpayers. Horowitz said no such estimate was available.
Eight Individuals Charged in Alleged $30 Million Unemployment Benefits Scheme
December 1, 2022 // According to court documents, Tyshion Nautese Hicks, 30, of Vienna, Georgia; Shatara Hubbard, 34, of Warner Robins, Georgia; Torella Wynn, 30, of Cordele, Georgia; Macovian Doston, 29, of Vienna; Kenya Whitehead, 35, of Cordele; A’Darrion Alexander, 27, of Warner Robins; Membrish Brown, 27, of Vienna; and Edith Nate Hicks, 45, of Atlanta, Georgia and others allegedly caused more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims to be filed with the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL), resulting in at least $30 million in stolen benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. To execute the scheme, the defendants and others allegedly created fictitious employers and fabricated lists of purported employees using stolen personally identifiable information (PII) from thousands of identity theft victims and filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims on the GaDOL website. The defendants allegedly stole PII from a variety of sources, including by paying defendant Edith Nate Hicks, an employee of an Atlanta-area health care and hospital network, to unlawfully obtain patients’ PII from the hospital’s databases. The defendants also allegedly caused the stolen UI funds to be disbursed via prepaid debit cards mailed to addresses of their choice, many of which were in and around Cordele and Vienna.
$11 billion was stolen from taxpayers in a massive fraud — will officials just ignore it?
November 28, 2022 // The Labor Department repeatedly blamed identity theft for its fraud problems — but the audit revealed it didn’t implement a system that could meaningfully curb identify theft until February 2021. Labor Department officials still can’t say how many fraudulent claims were paid or how long it took to detect them. Audits revealing incompetence and bad decisions aren’t uncommon. But DiNapoli’s team, to its lasting credit, found something worse: Labor Department officials had gone rogue, repeatedly misleading legislators and the public. When Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon addressed lawmakers in January 2022, she said the department had “prevented over $36 billion from falling into the hands of criminals.” Auditors, however, found that claim couldn’t be substantiated.