The 44-year-old Sheet Metal Workers member from Denver, out of work since April, said, “My unemployment insurance ran out yesterday and I don’t know what I’m going to do without it, especially in a hard-hit economy where there are no jobs. No one wants to be on unemployment…we’d all rather be back at work right now. But the jobs just aren’t there.”
Roebuck and about 300 other unemployed workers from around the nation were on Capitol Hill Wednesday to tell their stories and urge Congress to act now to maintain UI benefits for long-term jobless workers.
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| Edrie Irvine, unemployed for more than a year, says Congress must act now to maintain jobless benefits. Jobless workers, Anthony Roebuck, left, and Russ Myer, right, flank her. Photo courtesy of the AFL-CIO |
“That’s why we’re calling on Congress to maintain unemployment insurance, as our nation has done for generations whenever jobs are scarce.”
There are five job seekers for every job opening, and the percentage of people unemployed for longer than six months is the highest on record.
Edrie Irvine, a Silver Spring, Md., grandmother and former legal secretary out of work since October 2009, said, “This isn’t something they should even have to talk about or debate. In 40 years they [Congress] have never cut off unemployment insurance when unemployment is so high.”
Irvine has run through her savings and other resources. The unemployment benefits she says are “basic survival — putting food on the table, keeping the house warm at night, making sure there is a house,” run out in three weeks.
Republican lawmakers vowed to continue blocking help for job seekers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said they would use Senate rules to block new unemployment help and every other bill until the Senate passes an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Other Republican lawmakers have even claimed killing the extended benefits program will actually spur the jobless to look harder for work.
Russ Myer, a 35-year-old unemployed marketing copywriter from Portland, Ore., and father of a 4-year-old son, says that infuriates him.
“First, there is the obvious inequity in calling for tax breaks and denying workers help,” Myer said. “That is incredibly hypocritical and infuriating….This so-called tough love idea that if we cut off benefits it will spur people to go out and look even harder for work…that the unemployed simply sit around on the couch and collect their checks is a cruel misconception.”
Myer was out of work for 20 months before finding a job — but shortly he was laid off from that job, too. He and his wife have been forced to sell their home while looking for any kind of work. But a local grocery store’s recent job fair that drew 6,000 applicants shows how difficult that is.
“We’ve learned to get by on very little, but we can’t get by on nothing,” he said. “There was a time when people thought this was just temporary, that we can get back to where we were. That time’s gone. I’m not looking for a handout or someone to take care of me….I’m looking for a tool to help cope.
“If somebody was drowning, you wouldn’t sit around and debate who was going to save them or who was going to pay for it. You’d jump and save them.”
The AFL-CIO is planning a Dec. 7 day of online solidarity with America’s long-term jobless workers. The federation is urging people to sign an online petition.
Mike Hall writes for the AFL-CIO news blog, where this article originally appeared.
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The 44-year-old Sheet Metal Workers member from Denver, out of work since April, said, “My unemployment insurance ran out yesterday and I don’t know what I’m going to do without it, especially in a hard-hit economy where there are no jobs. No one wants to be on unemployment…we’d all rather be back at work right now. But the jobs just aren’t there.”
Roebuck and about 300 other unemployed workers from around the nation were on Capitol Hill Wednesday to tell their stories and urge Congress to act now to maintain UI benefits for long-term jobless workers.
|
| Edrie Irvine, unemployed for more than a year, says Congress must act now to maintain jobless benefits. Jobless workers, Anthony Roebuck, left, and Russ Myer, right, flank her.
Photo courtesy of the AFL-CIO |
At a press conference with the jobless workers, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said, “As of today more than 800,000 people — including people right here in this room — will no longer receive support while they search for work. Every day of inaction by Congress means that more people will fall out of the system. It will further damage our communities and weaken our economy.
“That’s why we’re calling on Congress to maintain unemployment insurance, as our nation has done for generations whenever jobs are scarce.”
There are five job seekers for every job opening, and the percentage of people unemployed for longer than six months is the highest on record.
Edrie Irvine, a Silver Spring, Md., grandmother and former legal secretary out of work since October 2009, said, “This isn’t something they should even have to talk about or debate. In 40 years they [Congress] have never cut off unemployment insurance when unemployment is so high.”
Irvine has run through her savings and other resources. The unemployment benefits she says are “basic survival — putting food on the table, keeping the house warm at night, making sure there is a house,” run out in three weeks.
Republican lawmakers vowed to continue blocking help for job seekers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said they would use Senate rules to block new unemployment help and every other bill until the Senate passes an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Other Republican lawmakers have even claimed killing the extended benefits program will actually spur the jobless to look harder for work.
Russ Myer, a 35-year-old unemployed marketing copywriter from Portland, Ore., and father of a 4-year-old son, says that infuriates him.
“First, there is the obvious inequity in calling for tax breaks and denying workers help,” Myer said. “That is incredibly hypocritical and infuriating….This so-called tough love idea that if we cut off benefits it will spur people to go out and look even harder for work…that the unemployed simply sit around on the couch and collect their checks is a cruel misconception.”
Myer was out of work for 20 months before finding a job — but shortly he was laid off from that job, too. He and his wife have been forced to sell their home while looking for any kind of work. But a local grocery store’s recent job fair that drew 6,000 applicants shows how difficult that is.
“We’ve learned to get by on very little, but we can’t get by on nothing,” he said. “There was a time when people thought this was just temporary, that we can get back to where we were. That time’s gone. I’m not looking for a handout or someone to take care of me….I’m looking for a tool to help cope.
“If somebody was drowning, you wouldn’t sit around and debate who was going to save them or who was going to pay for it. You’d jump and save them.”
The AFL-CIO is planning a Dec. 7 day of online solidarity with America’s long-term jobless workers. The federation is urging people to sign an online petition.
Mike Hall writes for the AFL-CIO news blog, where this article originally appeared.