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Members Take Action Against Unemployment Benefit Loss December 20, 2002
One year ago, all the inside construction members of Detroit Local 58 were working, alongside 400 travelers. Then the construction downturn hit the Midwestern city. Hard. Now 1,200 of the locals construction members are out of work. Of those, 100 will lose their unemployment benefits on December 28 because Congress refused to pass a bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended emergency unemployment benefits through March 2003. As a result, 830,000 long-term jobless will lose benefits three days after Christmas and another 95,000 will lose benefits every week thereafter. But instead of taking it quietly, Local 58 made a loud public issue about it last week at the union hall where out-of-work members pick up weekly supplemental checks. While there, they sat down in the auditorium and wrote letters to senators, members of Congress and President George W. Bush, urging them to extend benefits for the jobless. U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Michigan) joined them. "Were just frustrated because the Grinch stole our Christmas," said Local 58 Business Manager Jeff Radjewski. "We figured the best thing would could do is make people aware. We had a great turnout and a great response."
Radjewski estimated that more than 1,000 members showed up for the event, which was covered on the front page of local newspapers. It was only a few days later that President Bush finally said he supports an extension in unemployment benefits. Congressman Levin is an original cosponsor of "The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act," which would guarantee 26 weeks of unemployment benefits to all workers unable to find work and would provide an additional seven weeks of benefits in states with especially high and persistent unemployment. "This is not only a crisis for us but people in a lot of the other trades as well," said Radjewski, adding that encouraging signs about an economic turnaround are starting to appear on the horizon. "I feel pretty good about things improving by the second quarter of 2003. But we have got to do some things in the short term."
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IBEW Local 58 Web site...Bad News for Jobless: Congress Fails to Extend Benefits
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