Labor & Employment Law

It?s the Jobs, Stupid

By Tula Connell

So the U.S. Senate ran off on vacation and left the House to pass a jobs bill that the august body won’t consider for another week, when up to 1.2 million jobless workers will have lost their unemployment insurance (UI) because the Senate failed to act.

Nice.

Expect to win any elections anytime soon? Guess not. Because what working families voters care about?job creation?clearly is no match for the chance to fire up the limos and head out of town.

This makes the third time Congress let extended UI lapse and the second time Congress left town for a recess knowing it would cause massive hardship for workers unable to find jobs.

But in the view of some lawmakers, that’s just fine because helping jobless workers feed their families only encourages them to not look for jobs. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)?who as Dave Johnson points out makes $174,000 with the best benefits in the nation?says jobless workers on UI “don’t want to go look for work.”

Here’s a message for Judd from Deborah, a jobless worker who commented at the AFL-CIO Now blog:

I have been a lifelong Republican. I believed that if you were willing to work, you could always find a job and support yourself and your family. Confident, even cocky I suppose, in hindsight, I generally thought that welfare was a lifestyle people chose.

After working more than 20 years at a well-paying job, I was a victim of widespread job cuts. The fact that I was a long-term employee actually worked against me as bureaucrats eagerly cut many of us who had the highest salaries to maximize their savings.

Her job ended Dec. 3 and her UI is now expired.

I have faithfully applied to job after job….What will I do when my unemployment benefits end? I am outraged that our representatives seem willing to let people go under when they have lost a job through no fault of their own and there are not enough jobs to make a dent in the jobless situation.

Not enough by a long shot: There are more than five workers for every one job, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). As EPI vice president Ross Eisenbrey said via MarketWatch:

People who are trying to find a job, no matter how hard they try, most will not be able to find a job in the near future. They have to have some income or they end up having their house foreclosed, or declaring bankruptcy.

Instead of stirring up class war, Judd and others should take a lesson in economics: By replacing a portion of a worker’s income, unemployment insurance benefits can support consumer demand and so fuel the economy.

Job creation is what will make the U.S. economy strong. Working family voters know that. Congress may soon, too. As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said after Congress left jobless workers hanging:

We are in a jobs emergency?a national crisis. Millions of lives are in ruins and children are being condemned to poverty. Excuses from their elected representatives are of no help to them….Working family voters will not forget who sided with them and who did not.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).