|
Support SSB 5963 as is! Keep its pro-worker changes!
The Washington State House of Representatives is about to vote on SSB 5963, an Unemployment Insurance reform bill granting employers billions of dollars in tax breaks. The bill was recently amended with some pro-worker language to make it acceptable to advocates for this recession's real victims: people who've lost their jobs through no fault of their own. But business lobbying groups are pressuring State Representatives to strip those positive changes, so they get their billions in tax breaks, while unemployed workers get nothing.
Please send your State Representatives an email TODAY urging them to SUPPORT SSB 5963 without further amendment, and to OPPOSE corporate lobbying efforts to strip unemployment benefit improvements from the bill.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject:
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I'm writing to urge you to SUPPORT SSB 5963 as it was amended by the House Commerce and Labor Committee.
Those important changes protect benefits that unemployed workers already get (ESD commissioner discretion for "good-cause" quits) and restore benefits they had for decades before 2005 (4.0 benefit multiplier). Those changes are not too much to ask compared to the billions of dollars in permanent tax breaks that employers still get under SSB 5963. In fact, they are absolutely essential to restore a measure of balance to the bill.
I know that business lobbyists are pressuring you to remove those pro-worker changes. I urge you to OPPOSE those efforts. The cost of those changes are very small compared to the permanent tax breaks that employers will get.
Plus, the 4.0-multiplier benefit increase will not happen until 2010, after the temporary economic-stimulus benefit increase expires. This is not only the right thing to do for struggling families who lose their income through no fault of their own, it is good for businesses in communities hard-hit by layoff where those benefits will immediately be spent.
Please resist efforts to turn SSB 5963 into a one-sided multi-billion-dollar giveaway to employers, and fight to maintain the positive pro-worker changes made in committee.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
|
