This Sunday, individuals filing for unemployment benefits in the District of Columbia will see the first increase in their weekly Unemployment Insurance benefits in over ten years. “At a time when more and more people are struggling to get by in the District, we know just how scary suddenly finding yourself without employment can be for working people,” said Metro Washington Labor Council Executive Director Carlos Jimenez. “Critical programs like Unemployment Insurance were created so that no working person will be thrown off the ‘economic cliff’ when they find themselves without a job.” In addition to increasing the maximum weekly UI benefit amount, individuals with part-time earnings are now able to receive a larger portion of their weekly benefits, and seasonal workers and those with inconsistent work histories are now eligible to get up to 26 weeks of benefits. Along with recent increases to the DC minimum wage and other policy proposals like paid-family leave, Jimenez says the UI improvements “will go a long way to making our economy one that allows working families to work and live in the District.”
On today’s labor calendar, author Rana Foroohar will discuss her book “Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business” today at noon at the AFL-CIO; complete details on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1899, seventy-year-old Mother Jones organized the wives of striking miners in Arnot, Pennsylvania to descend on the mine with brooms, mops and clanging pots and pans. They frightened away the mules and their scab drivers and the miners eventually won their strike. In 1919, black farmers met in Elaine, Arkansas to establish the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices. They were shot at by a group of Whites, and returned the fire. News of the confrontation spread and a riot ensued, leaving at least 100, perhaps several hundred, Blacks dead and 67 indicted for inciting violence. And in 1962, Cesar Chavez, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later was to become the United Farm Workers of America. Today’s labor quote is by Dolores Huerta “Professional farmworkers who know how to do a number of different jobs, whether it be pruning or picking or crafting, they see themselves as professionals, and they take a lot of pride in that work. They don't see themselves as doing work that is demeaning.”
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