Workers protest end of $600 unemployment supplement; jobless in Florida stuck with lowest benefit in

Workers protest end of $600 unemployment supplement; jobless in FL stuck with lowest benefit in nation


Workers in Miami protested Friday against losing federal Unemployment Insurance benefits of $600 weekly that jobless people were receiving in the pandemic economy due to massive job losses.

The four-month-old supplement ended Friday, with partisan fighting in Congress failing to create a replacement. The U.S. Department of Labor reports nearly 32 million Americans are out of work.

The loss of the $600 weekly supplement leaves Florida workers made jobless by the pandemic reliant on a $275 weekly state benefit that includes only 12 weeks of unemployment pay — the lowest total benefit in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. (The base number of weeks does not reflect the 13-week extension authorized nationwide by Congress for COVID-19 relief.)

“We are feeling the pain of the pandemic through no fault of our own. There are no jobs for people to find,” said Jeffrey Mitchell, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO and of Transit Workers Union Local 291, who was interviewed by the Phoenix.

Read more: https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2020/07/31/workers-protest-end-of-600-unemployment-supplement-jobless-in-fl-stuck-with-lowest-benefit-in-nation/