November 18, 2011 –Also posted in Arlington Yupette website

All the police in Arlington, Va., in full riot gear, were on hand for the totally peaceful demonstration of Occupy DC and Occupy Northern Virginia at Key Bridge yesterday. What was the county board thinking?

There were large representations of union locals among the many who marched to the bridge and gathered there to show signs protesting the failing infrastructure and the economic and income disparity between the small minority in our society and the large majority; between multinational corporations and the rest of the country, and the disappearance of any activity that would bolster the U. S. economy; basically, that we have lost everything.

There was also another demonstration. The county board demonstrated whose side they are on, and it ain’t you and me.

It was an impressive police turnout for such a small county with its own economic problems. Given the heavy traffic conditions that always exist at the bridge, it is easy to see why the police deemed riot gear useful as protection from oncoming vehicles. Unless, of course, they anticipated encountering teachers in full riot gear.

Although the demonstrators disrupted neither pedestrians nor vehicles, police continually maneuvering their vehicles did do that. Given the current state of our society, it is easy to see why unions must again be out on the street. For that matter, now we all need to be out on the street. Since increasingly, formerly middle class persons are finding themselves homeless, might this be inevitable?

18 November, 2011

A Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee of the House Labor and Commerce Committee on February 17, 2011 voted to kill a bill (SB 1401) approved in the Virginia Senate that would have greatly improved unemployment insurance in Virginia and added some $130 million in federal funds to Virginia’s financially troubled unemployment trust fund. (See separate article on SB 1401).

Advocates for the unemployed were very disappointed with this ill designed and mean spiritied vote that will not ony hurt unemployed people in Virginia, but also keep $130 million from being added to Virginia unemployment fund which is mostly bankrupt, and now will force substantial increased employment taxes owing to the short fall in funds.

This vote unfortunately is a victory of an ideology of stupidity over practical improvements to both the State of Virginia’s precarious budget and to better treatment for Virginians who lose their jobs in the future. The bill would have given 26 more weeks of UI benefits to unemployed person finished training, UI benefits to part-time employees, and to employees who have to quit owing to a compelling family emergency.

The Virginia Senate approved senate bill 1401 on Feb. 8, 2011 that will allow part-time workers who lose their jobs to qualify for unemployment insurance (UI), as well as workers who have to quit their job for a compelling family reason, and also allow those receiving UI to continue while they finish an approved training program. If the House of Delegates also approves the bill and the Governor signs it, the State of Virginia will receive about $130 million in federal funds for the state unemployment fund now seriously in the red.

Several Green members have been working for the past two years with unemployed people and traveled to Richmond with two unemployed workers to tell their stories of unemployment. Marie Pellegrino related the difficulty facing unemployed people in Arlington:
Once I had a job making over $40,000 a year with great benefits, and I thought I would have that job till I decided to retire. But just short of vesting into the pension plan of this corporation I was let go, along with thousands of other people who worked for this company.

I thought I would have no trouble finding another job, because I had great skills and never had any problems getting a job before. I got my unemployment benefits and I told my husband whose only income is coming from Social Security, that everything would be fine. That was four years ago.

One of the things that ends with your employment is your health benefits. My COBRA payment was more than the maxim payment I was receiving from unemployment, and we still had to pay our mortgage. My husband and I started using our savings to pay our bills.

When my COBRA ended, I had to use HIPAA to keep my health insurance. I have a pre-existing condition. I have Epilepsy. I have to take medication so I won’t have seizures. Medication is very expensive. My payment for my health insurance is $1,276.00 a month. How many of you here pay that much for your health insurance, for just one person. This is a mortgage payment for me.

My husband and I had to get a home equity loan to pay for my health insurance, our mortgage, and other bills after our savings was gone. Now that is gone too. The house that we owned for nearly 30 years, raised our children in and were planning to grow old in is now for Sale. I pray every night that someone buys it, because I’m borrowing money from family to make the payments so we don’t lose it.

I have received no help from the Federal Government or the State of Virginia other than the 26 weeks of unemployment given me. There were no extensions, no one paid for my COBRA, and I couldn’t even get food stamps. I owned a car, and a house. You have to have nothing and be laying in the gutter to get help in this country and this State.

I would like to think if I find a part-time job, because I will take any job now. That if my employer lets me go, I could go to unemployment and get something to help pay the bills. That’s what SB 1401 will do.