Michigan now offers the fewest weeks of unemployment in the nation

Michigan Democrats are working on a bill to restore the six-weeks of unemployment Republicans lopped off a bill the Governor signed on Monday.

The Governor signed House Bill 4408 into law on Monday, despite every single Michigan U.S. Democratic Congressman and groups like the Michigan League for Human Services urging him to veto it. The bill was meant to reduce fraud and clear up some technical language so that unemployed Michigan workers could continue to receive federal extended benefits up to 99 weeks. But Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, slipped in an amendment cutting the state benefit period from 26 weeks to 20 weeks.

Gov. Rick Snyder blamed the decision to stiff workers on the Legislative Republicans, but he signed the bill anyway. Since he took office in January, Snyder has signed 15 bills into law, and he has held a press conference for each bill signing, except his one. He even held a press conference for the bill signing for the anti-union and anti-Democratic Emergency Financial Managers (EFM) package of bills when more than 5,000 people were just a few hundred yards away on the Capitol lawn protesting against the EFM expansion.

But there was no press conference for this bill signing.

The only good news is that 150,000 Michigan residents will continue to receive 20-weeks of federally funded unemployment benefits that will keep the economic recovery going and will allow them to put food on the table and maybe keep their homes. The bad news is that it will permanently reduce the number of weeks of state-funded unemployment benefits. As a result, workers who file as of January 15, 2012, will only be eligible for 20 weeks of state-funded benefits, instead of the current 26, before going to federal benefits. With this reduction Michigan will now offer the fewest weeks of unemployment in the nation.

What is even worse is that because federal unemployment extensions are proportional to the number of weeks the state offers, this change in the law means a Michigan resident making a claim next year could receive 22 fewer weeks of benefits than they would have this year if the drop in unemployment from the highest it has been since the Depression does not continue. In other words, unemployed workers in Michigan will also lose 16 weeks of federal unemployment benefits.

For most laid-off workers, 20 weeks provides little leeway for a decent job search, especially during recessionary periods when any work is hard to come by. But to illustrate how out of touch the Republicans really are, they actually believe people would rather collect $362 a week – the maximum – than work. In fact, Rep. Ken Yonker, R- Caledonia, said that unemployed workers would, “rather be on their unemployment (than working). So, sometimes we’ve got to have tough love.”

Unbelievable, but this is typical of Republicans. What makes it even worse is Snyder’s attitude. His campaign was nothing but slick TV ads and bumper stickers, and one of the favorite false talking points was “Job One is jobs.”

Apparently, that’s not the case.

After a speech to the Michigan Association of Counties on Tuesday, Snyder was quoted as saying, “Next year, my main issue is, let’s start the job creation process” and questioned the results of the Republican Legislative anti-middle class agenda pushed through in the first three months of 2011, stating that GOP lawmakers had done nothing to help the state’s ailing job market while creating serious concerns for workers with legislation that would allow contracts to be broken and jobs eliminated.

“What happened to ‘Job One is Jobs,’” said Senator Bert Johnson, D-Detroit. “Those same people whose unemployment benefits you just cut can’t wait until ‘next year’ for you to focus on job creation.”

To make sure workers can hold on, Rep. Jim Ananich, D-Flint, and Senate Democratic Floor Leader Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit, announced that they are working on legislation that would restore the weeks of unemployment insurance cut by HB 4408. The new law would make Michigan, which has been hardest hit by joblessness in the past decade, the only state in the country to reduce unemployment insurance for their families.

“This is not the time to cut unemployment benefits for workers who lose their jobs due to circumstances beyond their control,” Hunter said. “Restoring these six weeks of benefits will ensure that workers have all the assistance they need while they are searching for employment.”

Deal on tax cuts means compromise is not a bad word

I’m used to fighting and arguing with right-wingers and Republican, and I have no problem with that it because its’ really not that difficult. But I spent much of yesterday arguing with fellow Democrats over President Obama’s decision to strike a compromise with Republicans on a temporary two-year extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts, including the bailout for millionaires, in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits and a one-year payroll tax reduction for all workers.

It’s a given that Democrats have a big tent with room for lots of opinions and viewpoints, so we will never agree on everything. We’re not Republicans that march in lock step. But I agree with the President on one major point: that compromise is not a bad thing.

In a news conference at the White House yesterday, Obama defended the deal, and he made the point that this country and the greatest form of government was formed from reasoned debate and a compromise. Like liberals, I would love for the president to stand up to the Republicans and their decision to fight for the richest 2 percent that already controls almost 24 percent of income in this country, but people elected the President to accomplish things and make progress, not to engage in useless political fights.

“But I'm not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington,” the President said. “And I'm not willing to let our economy slip backwards just as we're pulling ourselves out of this devastating recession.”

I understand that the American people are on our side on the issues, and that they support letting the tax cuts expire for the top earners and keeping the middle class tax cuts. But, there was too much at stake for Obama not to make the deal, including millions losing their unemployment insurance that are keeping a roof over their heads at a time when the unemployment rate is near 10 percent.

I would much rather see the rich get the tax cuts for just two more years instead of getting nothing. We could have the fight and see the unemployed lose their lifeline and see the middle class get a tax hike that will stall the climb out of the Bush recession, or we get something that keeps the economy recovering, yet it increases the budget deficit. So much for the crap about Republicans being deficit hawks and caring about the deficit.

I have heard the argument that we have the majority, so we should pass what we want. The fact is Republicans will just filibuster it, and they have used that rule more than any Senate in U.S. history.

The president was sent to the White House to govern, and he has done that. He has accomplished 80 percent of what he said he would accomplish in just two short years, but many Democrats are not satisfied. Granted, some of the things are not as strong or as sweeping as we would like, like health care insurance reform, but it’s a start.

There is nothing wrong with reasoned debate leading to a workable compromise, and when things are proven to work, we expand and improve them over time. A perfect example is Social Security. It was originally intended just for widows and orphans, but it has turned out to be one of the most popular and successful government programs ever.

This is in sharp contrast to Republicans way of governing. They have said no to everything in an attempt to defeat the President, and they could care less the harm it has done or will do to the country or the economy.

That strategy worked in the last election, and the fact is people didn’t necessarily vote for Republicans in the past election, they just didn’t vote for Democrats and stayed home. They plan to continue that strategy for at least the next two years.

They are trying to run the clock out in lame duck and make sure nothing gets done. They want to make sure the President gets nothing done or accomplishes anything. They don’t care if it means a Middle East terrorist gets his hands on a loose nuclear weapon from the former Soviet Union by sitting on the START treaty on strategic offensive arms.

They are also dragging their feet on repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” even though 70 percent of the American people support killing it, 70 percent of the military rank and file support killing it and the military leadership supports killing it. Why? Because if it doesn’t get done, they can blame Obama, and he will lose his liberal base.

We already know many Democrats don’t like the tax deal, and they plan to fight it. But it appears that even some Republicans don’t like it, even though their base, the richest 2 percent, got more money to offshore, but because it will give Obama something.

U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, told the Grand Rapids Press that “he expects some in his own Republican caucus to oppose the deal because it would allow the Democrats to claim an accomplishment in lame duck.”

That bears repeating: “Because it would allow the Democrats to claim an accomplishment in lame duck.”

Typical.

Obama forced to negotiate with the devil to keep recovery moving forward

Sometimes it’s not advisable to negotiate with the devil, but President Obama was forced to do just that over the bailout for the rich and the extension of the unemployment benefits.

It was announced yesterday that President Obama struck a deal with Republicans on a two-year extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It’s very hard to negotiate with someone who is only concerned with making you look bad and defeating you, is not interested in governing and is only concerned with protecting the richest 2 percent, but this crappy deal may be the best we can do.

Republicans claim that they care about the budget deficit, but the tax cuts to a group that already controls almost 24 percent of income in this country will add more than $36 billon to the federal budget deficit. It was either the tax break for people who don’t need it, or a tax increase to the middle class that will surely stall the climb out of the Bush recession.

The Bush tax cut was enacted because we had a budget surplus under President Clinton, but the tax cuts that were set to expire at the end of the month not only got rid of the surplus, but it helped create a huge budget deficit. So, Republicans want to give millions more to the rich, but nothing to the middle class.

The debunked argument they use is that if we don’t extend the tax cut to the rich, they, the alleged job creators, will not hire people. However, they are ignoring the fact that corporations are already earning huge, record profits right now with the tax cut.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released last month, so with the tax break and record profits they are not hiring. This is the highest total since records have been kept.

The growing gap between the richest 2 percent and everyone else is turning the United States into a banana republic. In fact, the U.S. now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.
Unemployment benefits are pumped directly back into the economy, as those on unemployment use the money for basic necessities like housing, lights, gas for the car to look for work and food to feed their family. The loss of unemployment benefits will have a disastrous effect on Michigan, but Republicans don’t seem to care. At no time in our history have we refused to extend unemployment benefits when the unemployment rate was this high.

Republicans have demonstrated time after time that they are simply not interested in governing, and their only concern seems to be getting and keeping power; no matter who is hurt. The only people they care about protecting seem to be the richest 2 percent, and they don’t need the help.

Republicans are even refusing to act on something as important as ensuring loose nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of a Middle East terrorist, and they continue to drag their feet on the START treaty on strategic offensive arms.

This is a crappy deal, but how do you negotiate with someone who cares so little about the middle class, the economy and will stop at nothing to make you look bad and defeat you?

The Senate and House Democrats have not signed off on the deal, and frankly, I’m not sure they should. No doubt it’s a crappy deal. But the fact is Republicans don’t care if unemployment benefits are cut off during the Christmas season, and they don’t care if taxes are raised on the middle class.

I can live with this deal. I don’t like it, but I understand how little Republicans care.

Democratic leader also urges GOP to move on Hire Michigan First bills

Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, was just one person battling Republicans to help those unable to find a job in the Bush recession continue to receive unemployment benefits, and the persistence paid off on Wednesday when the U.S. Senate a approved a six-month extension of unemployment benefits after weeks of Republican obstructionism.

Prusi introduced Senate Resolution 172 on July 1 urging U.S. Senate Republicans to put partisanship aside and lift their filibuster on a bill that will allow a six-month extension of unemployment benefits and Medicaid funding, but Michigan Senate Republicans even refused to allow a vote on the resolution and promptly went on a two week vacation.

“I am glad to see that two Republicans in the U.S. Senate finally allowed a vote on an extension of unemployment benefits and that it passed last night,” Prusi said. “I called on them to do so weeks ago, and it’s just a shame that more than 100,000 unemployed Michigan residents had to struggle to get by with their lifeline cut for three weeks while the Republicans played games and took vacations.”

While Senate Republicans enjoyed their vacation, 114,000 Michigan residents had their unemployment benefits run out. These workers, along with almost 300,000 additional unemployed Michigan workers, will have their benefits extended thanks to Congress’ action last night.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t much different in the State Senate, where Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans continue to do nothing for Michigan ’s economy and our unemployed workers,” Prusi said. “We have legislation before the State Senate that would hire Michigan workers first on state-funded projects and secure $138.9 million in federal funding to extend unemployment benefits for workers in retraining programs. The Senate Republicans in Lansing need to stop obstructing our efforts to help Michigan workers.

Republican filibuster on unemployment lifeline broken

Thousands of Michigan residents looking for work in the slow economic recovery from the Bush recession will still be able to stay in their homes, keep the lights on and feed their children after the Republican filibuster was broken on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate on extending unemployment benefits for those who have exhausted their 26 weeks of benefits.

“The filibuster-breaking vote came moments after Democrat Carte Goodwin was sworn in to succeed West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, who died last month at 92. Goodwin was the crucial 60th senator needed to defeat the Republican filibuster. The Senate gallery was packed with Goodwin supporters, who broke into applause as he cast his "aye" vote,” according the Associated Press.

Every single Republican voted to stiff working people, with the exception of sane Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Republicans have used the excuse to stiff workers and try to stall the economic recovery that it will increase the budget deficit, and that they insisted any benefits be financed by cuts to programs elsewhere in budget because it will increase the budget surplus.

“Many Republicans have voted in the past for deficit-financed benefits extension — including as recently as March and twice in 2008, during the Bush administration. But now they are casting themselves as standing against out-of-control budget deficits, a stand that's popular with their core conservative supporters and the tea party activists whose support they're courting in hopes of retaking control of Congress,” according the AP.

It’s just funny that now they are crying about a deficit when it’s being used to help working people actually survive in the mess they created instead of for tax cuts for the richest 1 percent, a useless war and a bailout to Wall Street. It was the Bush tax cuts that helped turn a budget surplus into a huge deficit and sent the country to the edge of a complete economic collapse.

But we were hearing from many prominent Republicans how the unemployed are lazy and actually think people would rather collect unemployment small amount they get from unemployment than work. This was also a move to make the President look bad and stall the economic recovery.

Republicans are hoping voters have a short memory in November.

The Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) announced that by this past Saturday Michigan would have 104,000 workers with lapsed unemployment benefits. Michigan was losing $200 million a month because of the loss of benefits. MLHS said unemployment benefits are one of the most effective economic stimulants available because jobless workers use them to pay bills and keep the dollars circulating.

Newspaper puts a face on the people Senate Republicans stiffed

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus did an excellent job on Sunday putting a face on the thousands of people in Michigan losing their unemployment benefits because the U.S. Senate Republicans chose to filibuster a bill that will allow a six-month extension of unemployment benefits and Medicaid funding.

Joyce Smith is a 62 year-old Conway Township resident who has worked her entire life and never asked for any help or handouts, but she has been unable to find a job in the Bush recession - the worst recession since the Great Depression - since she was laid off from her job at a large architectural/engineering firm.

“Her unemployment benefits, which allowed her to hang onto her house and pay utilities, will end in three weeks.“ Like many people in the country, Smith doesn't have health insurance and risks losing everything she's worked hard to get in her life.

"This is going to hurt us really bad," Smith said. "This is what has kept us afloat. It's like we don't have any hope."

She gets angry thinking about senators who didn't support extending the benefits. She knows unemployment benefits are supposed to be only temporary, and she would much rather work than receive money from the government. However, she said, Michigan is in trouble.

Smith is just one of 1,572 residents who lost their unemployment benefits last month, and by end of July, 1,486 more residents will lose unemployment benefits, according toe the P & A.

Republicans are doing everything they can to stall the economic recovery, as well as to continue their war to kill the middle class.

We now hear that some Republicans think people on unemployment don’t want to work and would rather collect unemployed than work. Republicans think those who can’t find a job right now are lazy, shiftless and “welfare cheats.” That is just absurd.

Smith said it best.

"There are no jobs out there," Smith said. "These people are really in need.""I'm not freeloading, if that's what they think. Let them lose their jobs and see what they think.”

The American people got a glimpse of how much Republicans abhor the middle class and working people. U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R - OH, said last week he wants to raise the retirement age to collect full Social Security benefits to age 70.

Social Security is the major source of income for most of the elderly, and nine out of 10 individuals age 65 and older receive Social Security benefits.

The solution to keeping SS solvent past 2052 is pretty simple. Payroll taxes are only withheld from US workers' paychecks on the first $97,000 of their annual incomes. Raising that cap would address the problem.

Somehow, I doubt Republicans will sign on to that solution, and it seems they would rather see people work until they die.

Republicans do everything they can to kill economic recovery

An award winning writer with a doctorate in English can better sum up the Republicans effort to stall and kill the economic recovery just to make the President look bad just so they can capture power much better than I can, and syndicated columnist Gene Lyons did just that with a column called “Americans still captive by the 'zombie lies'.”

This column ran in the print edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, but not online. The U.S. Senate Republicans filibuster on a bill that will allow a six-month extension of unemployment benefits and Medicaid funding is even more proof of Republican desire to stay in the Bush recession.

But Lyons said it best:

“It's not simply about making the Obama administration look bad. Many Republicans actually love economic recessions. No better means of disciplining the labor force has ever been devised. That’s the real message behind the GOP's Senate filibuster denying extended federal benefits to roughly a million long-term unemployed.”

Lyons quotes our own U.S. Senator, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-East Lansing.

“In consequence, several hundred thousand cops, teachers, firefighters and other public employees are sure to be laid off due to state budget cuts. Fat lot of good that will do the economy. But working stiffs will be keeping their heads down, won't they?
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., whose state has the nation's second-highest unemployment rate (13.6 percent), put it forcefully: "The Republicans in the Senate want this economy to fail. In cynical political terms ... they want our country to fail to win an election, and they're willing to take the people of this country with them."

It amazes me that anyone who makes a living from a pay check would vote for a Republican. But they have made a science out getting people to vote against their own self interest. The billons of dollars spent on rightwing think tanks has been a long term investment that has been worth every penny to the rich and Republicans.

“But that's only part of the story. One of the enduring mysteries of American life is how Republicans keep succeeding by failing. The presidency of George W. Bush ought to have inoculated American voters against GOP economic theories for a generation. Tax cuts for the wealthy led not to greater prosperity, but runaway budget deficits, a doubled national debt and the weakest job creation since World War II. See-no-evil financial deregulation damn near destroyed the world banking system. By the time President Obama was inaugurated last January, the economy was bleeding 750,000 lost jobs a month; the Congressional Budget Office had already projected the FY 2009 deficit at $1.3 trillion -- a budget written by the Bush White House. After taking over in 2001 with a healthy budget surplus and some economists warning against paying down the debt too fast, Bush doubled it to over $10 trillion in eight short years.”

Republicans had no problem with deficit spending by the likes of Bush and even Reagan, but now when we are trying to dig out of the worst recession since the Great Depression, they have a problem with it.

“New spending by the Obama administration -- mainly the economic stimulus and auto industry rescue -- is dwarfed by Bush's spending on the Iraq and Afghan wars and the unfunded Medicare prescription drug benefit. If Democratic attempts to stimulate the economy have proven less than adequate, that's because they've both been hostage to GOP obstructionism and restrained by the fiscal straitjacket Republicans left behind.”

Gene Lyons is syndicated political columnist and co-author with Joe Conason of “The Hunting of the President: The 10 Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. He graduated with a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1969. He taught at the University of Massachusetts, University of Arkansas and University of Texas before becoming a full-time writer in 1976. He has written hundreds of articles, essays and reviews for such magazines as Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine and The New York Review of Books. He is a winner of the National Magazine Award for Public Service.

Senate Republicans give Michigan’s unemployed the finger

LANSING -- The Michigan Senate Republicans joined their U.S. Senate colleagues in giving Michigan’s thousands of unemployed workers looking for work in the Bush recession the middle finger when they refused to even allow a vote on a resolution urging U.S. Senate Republicans to lift their filibuster on a bill that will allow a six-month extension of unemployment benefits and Medicaid funding.

“Today, we are about to break for a couple of weeks for the 4th of July holiday, but because of the Republican Senators and the United States Senate's failure to act on the unemployment extension and the FMAP extension, we are facing some critical issues here in the state of Michigan,“ said Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming. “If we do not get that extension passed in Washington, D.C., by next week, 97,000 families in Michigan will lose their unemployment benefits.”

The Senate Republicans referred Senate Resolution 172 to the Committee on Government Operations where bills go to die. Democrats moved to discharge the committee from further consideration, but Republicans moved to postpone the motion temporarily.

Republicans have used the lame excuse that the bill will increase the federal budget deficit, but the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said the deficit was because of the Bush tax cuts for the rich that Congress did not pay for and the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost of allowing the unemployed an extension is just a tiny fraction of this year’s budget deficit.

“I think that is rather disingenuous when this same crowd of Republicans in six of the eight years of the Bush Administration turned a $236 billion surplus into a $1.4 trillion deficit,” Prusi said. “Now all of the sudden, they want to cut the deficit; they want to cut taxes; they want to cut regulations; they want to cut red tape; and the first thing they go after is cutting millions of Americans out of unemployment benefits and cutting millions of Americans off the Medicaid rolls.”

The Senate was on various recesses on and off on Thursday, waiting for bills to come over from the House because the Legislature breaks for most of the summer. Senate Republicans then moved that further consideration of the resolution be postponed for the day, meaning the summer, but Democrats asked for a vote on that postponement.

As predicted, every single Republican voted to stiff Michigan’s unemployed.

“Those are your constituents and my constituents that week by week will fall off the unemployment rolls; lose the support that keeps their families whole, puts food on their table, pays their rent, and allows them to live a modicum of a decent life here in the state of Michigan,” Prusi said. “They are playing pure partisan politics with the lives of our constituents, and I find it reprehensible that we will not even stand up.”

Republicans quickly moved to adjourn, despite objections from Democrats, and Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing - one of the Senate Republican’s most vocal critics - and Sen. Deb Cherry, D-Burton, were on the board to speak.

I hope Republicans have to go back to parades and picnics and look Michigan’s unemployed constituents in the eye and tell them tax cuts for the rich are more important for their very economic survival.

U.S. Senate Republicans stiff workers to go home and march in parades

Republicans in the U.S. Senate have a nice holiday gift for the many unemployed people in Michigan and across the country as we try and climb out of the Bush recessions: more suffering and the loss of a lifeline that is keeping many people’s heads above water.

The Senate adjourned for the July 4tth holiday without passing six-month extension of unemployment benefits after Senate Republicans filibustered the bill for the third time in three weeks. The vote failed 58-38; 60 were needed to end a Republican filibuster. That means more than 170,000 Michigan residents will see their benefits expire after the 26-week period ends.

Apparently, Republicans like U.S. Senate candidate and Teabagger Sharon Angle of Nevada who said unemployment benefits “spoil” the citizenry in her first and only interview with the real press thinks people enjoy being unemployed. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 14 percent followed by Michigan at 13.6 percent. I doubt few, if any, of those people are enjoying staying at home on "their couches.”

I have never met anyone, although I’m sure their may be a few people out there, who wants to be on unemployment.

The Republicans justification for thumbing their noses at people who want to work is that it will increase the deficit. It makes no sense to worry about a deficit now when we are trying to climb out of the Bush recession; the worst since the Great Depression. Where were they when Bush was squandering the budget surplus and creating the deficit to start and fight an unnecessary war?

Republicans want President Obama and the economic recovery to fail to recapture power, and if a few thousand unemployed workers get hurt in the process, so be it.

Charles Ballard, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, said in the Detroit Free Press that society needs to do more right now to help people running out of unemployment until the nation's economic recovery is on firmer footing.

"At this point, when the recovery ... still feels pretty tenuous, I think it's not appropriate to worry about deficits in the short run," he said.

Union endorsement in Senate race is anti-worker

Michigan Senate Republicans have been waging a war against Michigan workers and collective bargaining, so it was with shock and disbelief that I learned that Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Michigan State Council had endorsed the Republican in the race for the vacant 19th Senate District over Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson.
I emailed them for an explanation and to voice my objection, and to point out the fact that Senate Republicans have been pushing the union busting “Right to Work for Less” bills, and to let them know that increasing their thin majority will ensure the bills will move. But Mel Grieshaber, the Executive Director of SEIU Local 526M that represents prison guards, assured me that was not the case.

“Mike Nofs has signed the laborers pledge and we have seen it,” he wrote. “He does not support right to work, nor will he vote for it if it comes up in the Senate.”

He was so adamant to defend the misguided endorsement that the word “signed” was in all caps. I beg to differ. The Senate Republicans owned a 21-17 edge when now U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, held that seat. Giving them a 22-16 edge with a special election win in November and a leg up in the 2010 election will only embolden them to push RTW. I’m sure when the Republican Caucus gets Nofs behind closed doors and twists his arm the pledge will not be worth the paper it’s written on.

Proponents of RTW claim the law would do away with the requirement that workers must be in a union to be employed at a union shop. However, federal law already protects workers who don't want to join a union to get or keep their jobs, and gives workers the right to opt out of a union. But they must still pay union dues. RTW would give them the option of not paying dues while still enjoying the benefits of being in a union.

Unions in RTW states are required by law to defend non-dues-paying members involved in a dispute or charged with a grievance at work, but even those employees do not have to contribute dues. The simple fact is RTW does not give workers more rights, but instead it weakens unions and their ability to bargain for improved benefits and working conditions, which they call the real intent of RTW. The union, by law, must represent all workers equally.

Last session, there were RTW bills in both the House and Senate that did not get out of committee. The Senate version was introduced by Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi. This session, there is only the House version: House Bill 4081 introduced by Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy. I’m sure Cassis will be reintroducing the Senate version soon, especially if the Republicans increase their majority this November.

I also got a response from SEIU political director Vaughn Thompson, who assured we that Nofs, as well as Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, are both “pro-worker.” I about fell out of my chair when I heard that one. I don’t yet know a whole lot about Nofs’ record, but I’m familiar with the record of the man from my hometown of Monroe. He is anything but pro-worker, and I don’t understand how he got that undeserved reputation.

“We all know that Right to Work is wrong for Michigan and so does Mike Nofs and some others pro-worker Republicans like Randy Richardville,” Thompson wrote.

Perhaps he forgot about Senate Resolution 16 that was approved with every single Republican, including Richardville, voting yes in February that asked the U.S. Congress to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Under the EFCA an employer could only challenge a card check petition if fraud or illegal coercion was alleged, and not automatically call for an election when the majority of workers say they want a union by signing pledge cards.

Perhaps he forgot about the vote on House Bills 4785-86 that would provide unemployment benefits to individuals who are only available for and seeking part-time work and those in an approved job training program who have exhausted their regular benefits that would pump $140 million in federal funds into Michigan. Every Republican voted against it, including Richardville.

Perhaps he forgot about Richardville, chair of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, stripping out a provision in Senate Bills 4453-4455 that would help workers having their homes foreclosed on. The provision would have stipulated that if at the end of the 90 days a homeowner is eligible for a loan modification, but the lender does not give it to them for whatever reason, then the lender would be forced to take the foreclosure through the judicial process. That provision passed the House, but it was striped out and approved along party lines in the Senate with Richardville standing up for banks against workers.

You need to reconsider that endorsement.

Report says Michigan’s unemployment insurance system is outdated and discriminatory

Michigan’s unemployment insurance system is outdated and unable to adequately meet the needs of unemployed working families, and it is discriminatory against women and low wage workers, according to a recent report by the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS).

The MLHS released the report, “Michigan Needs to Modernize its Unemployment Insurance System,” on June 11 as other states were passing legislation to accept funds from the federal government’s Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act (UIMA), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that would both stimulate the economy and help unemployed workers simply survive.

The report says only half of Michigan’s 14 percent unemployed are collecting benefits, and the low number is the result of the outdated system operating under rules that were designed for the 1930’s New Deal program.

Senate Republicans left $140 million in federal funds on the table when they voted against American workers and against discharging House Bills 4785 and 4786 from the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee last week. The bills, approved by the House on May 6, would provide unemployment benefits to individuals who are only available for and seeking part-time work and those in an approved job training program who have exhausted their regular benefits. It will pump $140 million in federal funds into Michigan which is suffering with double-digit unemployment.

Among the highlights of the MLHS report are that a minimum wage worker in Michigan must work nearly four times as many hours to gain UI monetary eligibility as a higher-wage worker. The full-time working requirement for UI disproportionately burdens female workers in the state. For every $1 of UI benefits spent by workers and families, there is an estimated $2.15 in economic growth. That makes Senate Republicans decision to stiff Michigan workers even more appalling.

The report also found part-time workers make up one-sixth of the nation’s workforce, but they are restricted from collecting UI in states like Michigan. This requirement disproportionately burdens female workers in the state who represent 68 percent of part-time workers nationwide. The requirement makes child care and parenting responsibilities a mess. Also, workers are often unable to find full-time work simply because no one wants to hire full time workers because it’s cheaper to hire two people who each work 20 hours instead of one and pay that one person benefits.

Michigan Senate Democrats recently launched a website calling for action on this plan that eleven other states have already approved to receive the funding allocated to them. The site encourages visitors to sign a petition and contact Republican Senators to demand support for the legislation.

Senate Republicans slap Michigan workers in the face and address a problem that does not exist

LANSING – Less than 24 hours after voting against Michigan’s unemployed workers and leaving $140 million in federal funds that would have gone directly to Michigan workers who cannot feed their families on the table, Senate Republicans again voted against Michigan workers on Thursday by addressing a problem that doesn’t exist.

Senate Bills 612-615 were approved along primarily party lines that address fraud in the unemployment benefits system and penalizes the unemployed who received benefits by mistake. Senate Democrats were upset for a number of reasons, and the bills did not receive a single committee hearing. They were introduced in late May and forgotten until passed by the majority on Thursday as the Legislature took two-week summer break.

“This shows that our priorities are clearly out of step with the needs of people who are struggling out there in Michigan,” said Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit.” While we are cozy in this air-conditioned chamber, there are people who are struggling just to barely make it. This is another example of how this Legislature is totally out of touch with the needs of people.”

Specifically, the bills would allow the recovery of interest on the amount of improperly paid unemployment benefits, double the amount of damages that may be recovered for fraud and create the "Special Fraud Control Fund" and require amounts recovered for fraud violations to be deposited into this Fund.

Senate Democrats said they support going after fraud, but there is no provision for the state making a mistake, or even the worker thinking he is eligible and receives benefits that later turns out he was not eligible for. It also didn’t address employers who fraudulently try to stop a worker from collecting benefits.

“I didn’t see anything in those bills that was aimed at employers who are fraudulently denying workers unemployment insurance,” said Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor. “I had a trucking company in my office the other day in their fight with Treasury over taxes that they were charged. In fact, there was an $80,000 dispute in Treasury who is admitting that they are wrong, but they don’t want to give the money back to the trucking company.

“So if the trucking wants to continue to litigate this, they will have to put up one hundred and something thousand dollar bonds to go after $80,000,” he said.

The bills would also put Michigan out of conformity with federal rules and put us at risk of about $70 million in federal sanctions. But Senate Democrats were more incensed that the bills were rushed out without a single committee hearing just 24 hours after refusing to consider House Bills 4785 and 4786 that would provide unemployment benefits to individuals who are only available for and seeking part-time work and those in an approved job training program who have exhausted their regular benefits. That would make Michigan one of only about five other misguided states to say no to those funds.

“When we are at 14.1 percent unemployment here in the state of Michigan, and we leave $140 million sitting on the table in Washington that we could be using to benefit working families and people who have lost their jobs here in Michigan, I think that is a travesty of what we are sent here to do,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming.

Because Michigan's largest employer, the auto industry, is losing market share in the national recession, it has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. But, only about half of Michigan’s unemployed workers are currently receiving benefits, according to a report by the Michigan League for Human Services, because they have exhausted benefits without finding a job, they are working part-time or they lost a part-tine job. It’s also estimated that for every $1 of unemployment benefits spent by workers and their families, there is an estimated $2.15 in economic growth.

Prusi said he is angry that he has to go home to the UP during the Legislature’s two-week break where unemployment is even higher than the rest of the state and tell them the only thing the Legislature did was penalize them if a mistake is made. Instead of helping 20 percent of the people, they are going after 2 percent of the people.

“You could have brought home that we are extending your unemployment benefits. You could have brought home we are going to help you get retrained for a job because your job has left and is not coming back. But all you are going to do is say we ended fraud in the unemployment system,” he said. “The very bulk of the people and the very number that is shown 2.5 percent of the people are overpaid in their unemployment benefits, and you are going to go after that 2.5 percent and claim you saved $100 million. That is fraudulent in itself.”

Senate Republicans vote against Michigan workers

LANSING – Senate Republicans again voted against workers Wednesday, and left $140 million in federal funds that would have gone directly to Michigan workers who cannot feed their families on the table.

Senate Democrats tried to discharge House Bills 4785 and 4786 from the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee to the floor on Wednesday, but it was blocked along party lines. The bills, approved by the House on May 6, would provide unemployment benefits to individuals who are only available for and seeking part-time work and those in an approved job training program who have exhausted their regular benefits. It will pump $140 million in federal funds into Michigan which is suffering with double-digit unemployment, and Michigan cannot afford to give up that money for people who can only find part-time work and people who lost a job and are trying to learn new skills.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, said Michigan unemployment is the worst it has been since 1983, and in 1983 he was one of those unemployed. He said he had to leave two small children behind in Michigan as an unemployed miner and find work in Colorado. He said he doesn’t want any more Michigan residents and families to have to go through that and leave the state.

“The only thing that helped keep my family together was the fact that I had extended unemployment benefits,” he said “There were 3,500 iron ore miners laid off, and you could not find a job in the Upper Peninsula to save your soul.”

Today’s ore miners are auto workers, and the need to diversify Michigan’s economy is paramount. The economic climate has also produced thousands of workers who are technically part-time because they work less than 40 hours a week, and employers also do not have to supply benefits like sick days and health benefits. If that type of worker lost their job, they would not be eligible for unemployment benefits under the current plan. In fact, part-time workers currently make up one-sixth of the nation’s workforce.

“These bills have sat long enough,” Prusi said. “Thousands of people are going without unemployment benefits because we refuse to act in this chamber, and I think now is the time to act before we break for the summer; before we let these families go without the unemployment benefits that supports them and supports their children.”

Opponents – primarily Republicans and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce - claim that once the stimulus money is gone in four years the employers will have to pay more in taxes to pay for the unemployment benefits. But most states, all with lower unemployment rates, have taken the money.

GOP cheers for 9.3 percent unemployment rate

I could hear the cheers from Republicans even in my office early this afternoon when the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth announced Michigan's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate in October rose to 9.3 percent, the highest unemployment rate the state has seen since July 1992.

It didn't take long for the official Republican blog to pick up the cheer. He, of course, is blaming the Governor for the national recession and finical meltdown that has led to the state's biggest employer facing bankruptcy and looking to Washington for a loan to save 3 million jobs. It's sad they are happy the state and country is facing tough times just to seize power.

"The national economic downturn appeared to have a negative impact in October on Michigan’s already weak labor market,” said Rick Waclawek, director of Leg's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives in a press release.

The biggest job loses, obviously, are in manufacturing, and the Big 3 cutting jobs has had a serious ripple effect because people do not have the kind of jobs that pay a living wage that helps fuel the economy.

I have been in that unemployment line in the past, and I can find nothing to cheer about. That was at a time when the unemployment rate was in double digits. The modern high of 16.9 percent unemployment was reached in November 1982. In fact, it stayed in double digits until 1985, and the unemployment rate stayed at least 8 percent until 1988.

Good news for Michigan: bad news for Republicans

Here’s some news you will not hear from the rightwing bloggers, actually blogger, since they have only one: Michigan was one of six states to record significant job gains between May and June, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We hear with glee and loud cheers from the right when Michigan has a high unemployment rate, the highest in the country they love to tell us. It’s kind of sad when they cheer when Michigan goes through hard times.

According to the BLS press release, the job gains totaled 16,700, which meant Michigan added the second highest number of jobs, statistically speaking. Texas added the most jobs with 47,700, followed by Wisconsin with 8,200, Ohio with 7,900, Oklahoma with 7,700 and New York with 7,300. This is despite the state’s largest employer starting another round of massive layoffs.

It’s hard for me to understand how the governor, any governor, can be blamed for the state's largest employer losing market share, and how a governor can be blamed for the state’s dismal economy when they cannot change or alter the two most important factors that effect the economy: trade policy and monetary policy.

Many of those jobs will come from Michigan adding 800 new jobs through a Dow joint venture and 3,798 jobs through multiple companies receiving tax incentives and brownfield development projects, but the GM layoffs will most likely offset those gains.

Despite the cheerleading from the right for Michigan to do badly, the state has had higher unemployment in recent years. The modern high of 16.9 percent unemployment was reached in November 1982. In fact, it stayed in double digits until 1985, and the unemployment rate stayed at least 8 percent until 1988.