California Labor Federation Chief Says It’s “Shameful” State Doesn’t Offer Unemployment Insurance To Striking Workers
12.08.2023 - 19:45
/ deadline.com
Striking members of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA who live in New York and New Jersey have a distinct financial advantage over their counterparts in California and elsewhere in the country: They are eligible for state unemployment insurance benefits even though they’re on strike.
In New York, striking workers are eligible to receive up to $504 a week for 26 weeks, while in New Jersey they can receive up to $830 a week for 26 weeks. But in California and elsewhere it’s zero, as state laws there prohibit strikers from receiving unemployment insurance because they’re considered to have left their jobs “voluntarily” – even those who voted against strike authorization.
Lorena Gonzalez, Executive Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, thinks it’s “shameful.”
In 2019, as a member of the California Assembly, she introduced AB 1066, which would have granted unemployment insurance to strikers. Her bill passed the Assembly but failed in the Senate by two votes.
With the legislature set to reconvene Monday after its summer recess, Gonzalez thinks this is the right time for legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom to take it up again.
“It’s time to re-look at that policy,” she told Deadline, “and see what we can do, because we don’t want striking workers to not be able to make ends meet; we don’t want them to be at the brink of homelessness. Up and down the state, we don’t want a group of workers – especially the massive number of workers we have out on strike right now – to be economically insecure because they’re being forced to go out on strike.”
“We’ve been talking about it this year,” she said. “It’s a big gap that our legislators need to look at as a way that they can support striking