CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Leaders of the International Union of Paints and Allied Trades (IUPAT) DC 53 Painters Union say a bill currently in the House Finance Committee after passing the state Senate could be detrimental to West Virginia workers if it gets passed into law.
IUPAT members protested SB 2, ‘Relating to unemployment benefits program,’ on Monday outside of the West Virginia Capitol. The bill measure would lower the weeks workers are eligible for unemployment from the current level of 26 weeks to as little as 12 weeks, with a maximum of 20 weeks in times of high overall unemployment.
“12 weeks is not long. You’re talking three months and you have to get a resume together and go look for a job that paid as much or more than what you were making in order to sustain your life,” Brian Stanley, Business Manager for IUPAT DC 53 Painters Union told MetroNews.
Stanley, who represents some seasonal and construction workers that work for eight months a year and off for four months said his workers need those months.
He also gave a recent example of members being laid off when Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs announced Feb. 11 the closing of the company’s Mountain State Carbon Coke Plant in Follansbee. He said 12 weeks would not be enough for these workers to learn a new trade and be hired.
“You take a guy that has worked in a plant for 30 years and his plant shuts down for no reason, no fault of his own. And you’re only going to give him 12 weeks to give him a new skill, a new trade to go feed his family? There needs to be time and 12 weeks is not enough,” Stanley said.
SB 2, which passed the state Senate 20-14 on Feb. 8, would limit the eligibility period for benefits to 12 weeks if the unemployment rate is below 5.5 percent. The rate would go up an additional week for each half-percent the unemployment rate goes up, to a maximum of 20 weeks.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan said during the passage, “I think indexing of the unemployment benefits, the duration of those benefits, is an important component of looking forward, planning for our future in West Virginia.”
“What’s magic about 26 weeks? Half of a year. It’s an arbitrary number that was picked by a previous Legislature.”
Senator Owens Brown, D-Ohio, said Feb. 8 that’s easy to say if you’re not unemployed.
“Twenty-six weeks is not that long,” he said. “I want you to get out there and find a job in 12 weeks.”
According to IUPAT DC 53 Painters Union, only nine states in the U.S. offer less than 26 weeks of unemployment.
Stanley said the bill passage would have a ripple effect in the Mountain State — in a negative way.
“I think you’ll see a lot of workers on government assistance, I think you’ll see a lot of workers lose their homes and cars,” Stanley said if the bill goes into law.
“You’ll probably see a lot of workers that live along the border of states that offer 26 weeks to move to those states.”