Tag Archives: Unemployment benefits

AFL-CIO

12/02/2010 Nativegrl77

‘DROP DEAD’

That’s the message deficit hypocrites in Washington have for jobless Americans. They blocked action in Congress—and now more than 800,000 long-term job seekers have lost their emergency unemployment benefits. The total’s set to rise to 2 million by year’s end.

See the human cost of hypocrisy—and tell your senators to open their eyes!

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Something in Washington reeks—and it’s not the dreary swamp the city was built on—it’s deficit hypocrites. You may have seen them on TV—folks who have no clue what life’s like for ordinary Americans. They are fighting for $700 billion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires but think maintaining emergency unemployment is “too expensive.”

These deficit hypocrites have basically told long-term unemployed workers to “drop dead.” Right now, more than 800,000 long-term job hunters have lost their emergency unemployment benefits. Every additional second of delay costs more than one worker his or her emergency lifeline.

We’ve updated our unemployment counter to track the ongoing cost of greed and purposeful, heartless delay in real time.⁽¹⁾

Find out how many workers have lost emergency unemployment insurance—and tell your senators this is totally unacceptable.

Today—as you read this message—100 unemployed workers are in Washington, D.C., to lobby their lawmakers.

Their message is clear: We have an urgent jobs crisis. With five job hunters for every one opening, we need jobs now. And while jobs aren’t there, job seekers need a lifeline.

The unemployed workers on Capitol Hill today—and the 2 million workers around the country who will lose their benefits by January unless Congress acts—need your help.

See how many workers have lost their emergency unemployment—and urge your senators to act.

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

⁽¹⁾ Simulation based on the National Employment Law Project’s estimate of 2,013,058 workers who will lose benefits by Dec. 31, 2010.

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Tell Congress: Help Jobless Workers Not Millionaires

11/16/2010 Nativegrl77


	Congress: Stand Up for Struggling Women and Families



	Your Members of Congress need to hear that they should extend unemployment benefits and let tax cuts for millionaires expire.

	Call 1-866-606-1189 today!

It’s hard to believe — but Congress is considering cutting taxes for the rich at the same time they discontinue unemployment insurance benefits for the millions of people who are out of work!

The emergency unemployment insurance program expires at the end of November. If Congress fails to extend it, this lifeline will be cut for 2 million workers in December alone. And, because these families won’t have income to spend in their communities to support their families, more jobs will be lost.

Yet, some of the same Members of Congress who are saying that they can’t afford to extend emergency unemployment benefits for another year insist on extending tax breaks for millionaires.

Will you stand up for your neighbor and call your Members of Congress? Calling is easy to do.

Call 1-866-606-1189
Tell the operator who answers the phone the name of your Member of Congress. (Not sure? Look it up here.)
Once you are connected to the office of your Member of Congress, tell the staff person who answers:
- Your name, that you are a constituent from (city, state).
- Stand up for struggling families by extending unemployment benefits for a year and allowing the tax provisions that only benefit the wealthiest two percent of households to expire on schedule.
- Thank you.
Hang up and ask your friends or coworkers to make a call as well. (To reach all three of your Members of Congress, you will have to dial 3 times. Thanks for your support and for making this extra effort.)

The Bush-era tax cuts and recent improvements in tax credits for working families will expire on December 31 unless Congress acts to renew them. Tax breaks for millionaires are also set to expire this year. Congress should extend tax benefits for middle- and lower-income families and not waste $700 billion giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

We have a limited amount of time to take action. Please take a stand for justice by calling 1-866-606-1189 today.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Joan Entmacher
Vice President, Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center

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Out in the cold

11/15/2010 Nativegrl77

More than 2 million workers and their families are in danger of losing their unemployment benefits just before the holidays.

Tell Congress to renew unemployment insurance now:

For millions of Americans and their families, a storm is brewing. Unless Congress acts by November 30th, two million unemployed Americans who are struggling to find work will be cut off from vital unemployment payments just before the holiday season.¹

It would be a disaster — not only for people who are out of a job and whose only lifeline is these small unemployment payments, but for the entire economy.²

It’s going to be a tough fight to make sure Congress extends these benefits — Republicans and conservative Democrats have stood in the way of extending unemployment insurance in the past, and they’re likely to do it again. They say we can’t afford to pay for it, but many of the same politicians are willing to add trillions to the deficit to extend President Bush’s massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Please join us in demanding that Congress extend unemployment benefits, and ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://www.colorofchange.org/preserve/?id=2275-1238940

The economic downturn has hurt everyone, but it’s hit Black communities particularly hard — unemployment among Black folks is at 16%, twice the national average. For young Black men, it’s above 40%.³

Economists say that unemployment benefits are one of the most effective ways to boost the economy, and the U.S. Census Bureau data reports that 3.3 million more people would have fallen below the poverty line in 2009 without unemployment benefits.^4,5

There are some signs that the economy is starting to recover — the number of new people applying for unemployment benefits has recently fallen. But if Congress fails to extend unemployment for 2 million people who are currently out of work, it would deal a serious blow to that progress. Those two million jobless Americans won’t have money to spend on their basic needs, and all kinds of businesses will suffer as a result — and be even less likely to start hiring.

Congress reconvenes on November 15 — and will only have a short time to continue the federal unemployment benefits program before the November 30 deadline. This past May, because of what conservative Democrats and Republicans to block extending unemployment benefits, Congress missed the deadline and allowed the program to lapse for seven weeks — stopping benefits to more than 2.5 million long-term unemployed job-seekers and their families. The unemployed cannot afford another lapse in benefits, and neither can our economy.

It’s hard to believe, but some politicians are saying we can’t afford to pay for these benefits, while at the same time trying to extend President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s a position that prioritizes luxury for the wealthy over survival for the most vulnerable people in our country — and it makes no sense for our economy.

Congress hears from wealthy people with access and power every day. So it’s essential for all members of Congress to hear from ordinary Americans who are struggling to make ends meet or know someone who is.

Please join us in demanding that Congress extend unemployment benefits by clicking the link below. We’re working with the National Employment Law Project to deliver your message to Congress this week. And we’ll keep our eye on politicians who are standing in the way of doing what’s right for our economy, and we’ll give you ways to hold them accountable.

http://www.colorofchange.org/preserve/?id=2275-1238940

Thanks and Peace,

— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Natasha, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
November 15th, 2010

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU — your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/contribute/

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Bitter Cold Winter for Unemployed Workers

11/11/2010 Nativegrl77

EMERGENCY PETITION

If Congress breaks for Thanksgiving without extending emergency unemployment benefits, every day of inaction will cause more of the 14.8 million people who are willing and able to work but can’t find a job to lose their lifeline—and possibly even their homes.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to extend long-term unemployment insurance now.

Across the nation, jobs just aren’t there. Many workers are in the job search of their lives.

In October, 14.8 million people were unemployed. A shocking 41.8 percent of them were jobless for 27 weeks or longer.*

But get this: Some lawmakers—many of the same ones who want to pass tax cuts for people who make more than $250,000 per year—want to cut off emergency unemployment benefits.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to extend emergency unemployment insurance now.

Congress is coming back next week, and we need our lawmakers to take dramatic action. Congress has never let unemployment benefits expire when this many people have been out of work—and if it happens, economists predict catastrophic results. More parents who can’t put food on the table. Families losing their homes…real estate values sinking further, faster….And devastation for local businesses as pockets are empty during the critical holiday shopping season.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to extend unemployment insurance now.

This is serious. The number of people out of work for more than six months is the longest on record. The National Employment Law Project estimates that—if Congress fails to act soon—800,000 people nationally will immediately lose unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. Two million workers will lose their benefits by the end of December. And the longer Congress delays extending benefits after that, the worse things will get for people who are out of work.

Please sign our petition today: Tell Congress unemployed people aren’t invisible.

Time is running out for Congress to take action without causing massive pain—and even homelessness—for long-term job-seekers. Our society, and our government, must not ignore our friends, family and neighbors who are unemployed through no fault of their own. These people have kids to feed, heat to keep on and homes to keep out of foreclosure—and you and I could easily be in their shoes.

Sign the petition: Make sure Congress doesn’t look the other way.

Thanks for standing in solidarity with your unemployed friends, family members and neighbors.

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. Next week, the same Congress that’s been in power for the past two years will be coming back for its “lame duck” session. But time is short. And an extension of unemployment faces an uphill battle in the Senate—Republicans may try to block extending unemployment so they can use it as political leverage.

Demand Congress take urgent action to renew emergency unemployment insurance now.

* “The Employment Situation – October 2010,” Bureau of Labor Statistics