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Vermont IBEW Fights Unemployment Benefit Cuts

May 5, 2010

Like dozens of other states, Vermont is faced with a drain on its unemployment insurance fund even as thousands of working families move into more desperate economic circumstances caused by persistent joblessness.

Montpelier Local 300 and other labor organizations—including the Teamsters and the National Education Association—are challenging Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas and a majority of state senators who want to balance the unemployment fund by cutting benefits to workers in their hour of greatest need.

A story on the Web site of the Barre Times and the Montpelier Argus details how the governor and state senate are proposing a “balanced approach” that would increase taxes on employers while reducing benefits for the unemployed.

Unemployed IBEW electricians joined a press conference opposing the plan to reduce the $425 weekly week benefit (which is already frozen) to $409 per week, while seeking very modest increases in taxes on employers that have not changed since 1983.

Other proposed solutions would change the base benefit period for unemployment insurance from the previous two quarters to the previous four.

Dan Cline, an unemployed Local 300 electrician from Grand Isle told the Times-Argus:

I challenge the governor or anyone in the legislature to live o unemployment.  Between car payments, mortgage, heat, insurances and groceries, you just can’t do it.

The Times-Argus reports that a study by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies reveals that 35 states have responded to the nationwide unemployment crisis by increasing taxable wage bases for employers.  Only three have cut benefits.

Christopher Curtis, a staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, says that if the state cuts benefits to balance the unemployment fund, the legislation should be called the “Family Destabilization Act of 2010.”