Labor leaders Thursday called on Gov. Charlie Crist and the leadership of both houses to expand the focus of the special session to change state statutes so unemployed Floridians will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits.
At a media event in Tallahassee, Florida AFL-CIO President Mike Williams and Karen Woodall, chairwoman of the Coalition for Fair and Comprehensive Tax Reform and an ally of organized labor, said they were optimistic that the U.S. Senate would extend federal unemployment benefits, but warned that out-of-work Floridians would not be able to receive them unless the Legislature acted quickly. Williams and Woodall urged the Legislature to change the expiration date for Floridians to receive federal unemployment benefits which currently is June 5.
Were asking the Legislature, the leadership in the Legislature, and the governor to change a few simple words, said Williams. Williams admitted that he had not yet found sponsors for any legislation changing the expiration date, but added that he was working on that and the governor had been informed of the proposal.
Williams cited numbers from the Agency for Workforce Innovation that show that more than 34,000 Floridians have lost and are losing federal unemployment benefits each week since the expiration on June 5.
The fact that these workers and our economy will continue to suffer when Congress does act because of a single line in Florida statutes is appalling, said Williams.
Williams spoke about his personal experiences, receiving federal unemployment benefits in the early 1980s. I wondered how my family, two little kids at the time, would get by, said Williams.
Woodall said that they had attempted to change the deadline during the last legislative session but there was hesitancy due to constitutional issues of forcing the federal governments hand.
It ought to be a no-brainer for this issue to be added to the call, she said.
Woodall said the extended benefits would provide $290 million from federal funds into Florida with only some administrative costs for the state.
It will keep people fed, in their homes and allow them to patronize local business so that the current economic disaster does not worsen, she said. Every unemployment worker who loses this critical lifeline is a lost customer for local businesses. It costs the state nothing, but for struggling working families this is everything.
While Williams said he backed the governor calling the special session to forward a constitutional amendment to the voters in November to ban oil drilling in Florida waters, he said extending unemployment benefits was just asimportant.
Over the next few days we will increase our efforts so that this very simple fix, changing a date in a statute, can be undertaken for the benefit of Floridas workers and our economy, he said. Stopping oil drilling is important for the economic security of our state; this is equally as important.
While Williams and his allies have yet to find a sponsor in either the House or the Senate, earlier in the week Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, said at a media event in Tallahassee that he would back extending the special session to tackle unemployment benefits.
We need to expand unemployment benefits, he said. We need them, people are hurting.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
