{"id":50231,"date":"2023-08-18T18:42:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T22:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/striking-workers-need-unemployment-pay-and-fast-this-lawmaker-says\/"},"modified":"2023-08-18T18:42:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T22:42:56","slug":"striking-workers-need-unemployment-pay-and-fast-this-lawmaker-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231","title":{"rendered":"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"js-article__body\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0002408469\" role=\"document\">\n<p>California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking workers, a state lawmaker says.<\/p>\n<p>State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next week that would make striking workers eligible for unemployment benefits. It\u2019s a last-minute effort with only about a month to go in the legislative session, but the senator said this week there\u2019s no time to waste because some striking workers need help now.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n<p>\u201cIn California in particular, we have writers on strike; hotel workers on strike,\u201d Portantino, who represents the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, said in an interview with MarketWatch. <\/p>\n<p>Actors are also still on strike. Recently, Los Angeles city workers walked off their jobs for a day. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s lots of unrest in the workforce \u2026 and companies and workers need to sit down and figure it out,\u201d the senator said. \u201cBy giving the workforce [financial] stability, you\u2019re going to give them the ability to have healthy negotiations that meet the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>See: <\/strong>What striking city workers have in common with striking Hollywood actors \u2014 and what they don\u2019t<\/p>\n<p>If the bill passes and the governor signs it, California would join two other states that provide unemployment pay to striking workers: New York, the first state to do so, has offered the benefit since 2020. New Jersey\u2019s governor signed similar legislation into law this year, but the effective date was backdated to 2022. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut are trying to pass the same type of bills. <\/p>\n<p>There have been more than 230 strikes around the country so far this year, according to the Labor Action Tracker report\u00a0from Cornell University\u2019s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.<\/p>\n<div data-layout=\"inline\n                \" data-layout-mobile=\"\" class=\"\n          media-object\n          type-InsetPullQuote\n            inline\n    scope-web|mobileapps\n  article__inset\n          article__inset--type-InsetPullQuote\n            article__inset--inline\n  \"><\/p>\n<p>          <!-- eventually when we know what this card will be we can change it and leave this one --><\/p>\n<div class=\"wsj-article-pullquote article__inset__pullquote \">\n<p class=\"pullquote-content article__inset__pullquote__quote\">\n        <span class=\"l-qt article__inset__pullquote__mark--left\">\u201c<\/span>\u2018Striking workers have earned their unemployment-insurance benefits. They deserve to use them when they are unable to work.\u2019<span class=\"r-qt article__inset__pullquote__mark--right\">\u201d<\/span>\n      <\/p>\n<p>        <small><br \/>\n          <span class=\"inset-author article__inset__pullquote__author\">\u2014 Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Unemployment benefits for striking workers can \u201cshift the burden from unions,\u201d said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. Union members receive a percentage of their regular wages from their unions\u2019 strike funds when they walk off the job, and unemployment benefits would supplement that money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could [help to] equalize the power of both parties,\u201d Masters said, referring to unions and companies, though he added that could really only happen to a certain degree because companies have more money than unions. <\/p>\n<p>After a recent Politico report on the possibility of the bill\u2019s introduction, California\u2019s chamber of commerce slammed the idea, pointing to the fact that the state\u2019s unemployment system is about $19 billion in debt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is irresponsible and unfair to increase taxes on every California employer, including those without any involvement in any strikes, to subsidize the striking workers in other industries,\u201d Robert Moutrie, a policy advocate for CalChamber, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Portantino said California\u2019s goal should be to \u201csolve both problems\u201d: labor issues and the unemployment-insurance fund\u2019s solvency.<\/p>\n<p>The California Labor Federation, whose current leader is a former California lawmaker who proposed similar legislation in 2019, backs the bill. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cStriking workers have earned their unemployment-insurance benefits,\u201d Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, the chief officer and executive secretary-treasurer of the group, which has more than 1,000 affiliated unions, said in a statement to MarketWatch. \u201cThey deserve to use them when they are unable to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t have workers economically insecure because they\u2019re forced to go out on strike,\u201d the former assemblywoman added. \u201cIt harms them and their families and has rippling effects on the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The last time the bill was proposed, it fell two votes short, Portantino said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a different time now,\u201d he said, referring to what he called a real shift in the economy in the past few decades, including wage stagnation and weaker worker protections. \u201cI think we will have those two votes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong>\u00a0Actors, writers, hotel housekeepers and grad-student workers are all striking for the same reason<\/p>\n<p>Unions for current striking California-based workers, such as actors, entertainment writers and hotel workers, did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts at the federal level to help striking workers include legislation introduced earlier this year by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and three of his fellow Democratic lawmakers, which would ban employers from terminating workers\u2019 healthcare benefits during strikes. The Striking and Locked Out Workers Healthcare Protection Act was referred to committee for further study.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/striking-workers-need-unemployment-pay-and-fast-this-lawmaker-says-16f7b0ff?mod=personal-finance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking workers, a state lawmaker says. State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next week that would make striking workers eligible for unemployment benefits. It\u2019s a last-minute [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-50231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-18T22:42:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-18T22:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1692398574_social.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-18T22:42:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-18T22:42:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\"},\"wordCount\":766,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\",\"name\":\"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-18T22:42:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-18T22:42:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says | iFintechWorld","description":"California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says | iFintechWorld","og_description":"California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-08-18T22:42:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-18T22:42:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1692398574_social.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says","datePublished":"2023-08-18T22:42:53+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-18T22:42:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231"},"wordCount":766,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231","name":"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-08-18T22:42:53+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-18T22:42:56+00:00","description":"California, the most populous U.S. state and home to some of the highest-profile strikes so far this year, should provide more financial help to striking","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=50231#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Striking workers need unemployment pay \u2014 and fast, this lawmaker says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50233,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50231\/revisions\/50233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}