Wear Your Face Mask At All Times

 

Be safe, exercise social distancing, and wash your hands!

Wear Your Face Mask At All Times

 

Be safe, exercise social distancing, and wash your hands!

Florida’s Legislature kicked off the Legislative Session with attacks on frontline workers’ rights and safety on the job, attempts to stifle Floridians’ voice in our democracy, and more.

Digital activists with the Virtual Working Families Lobby Corps fought back against these hacks on Florida’s mainframe and will continue the fight throughout the rest of the session. Find out more in this edition of the 2021 Florida AFL-CIO Legislative Update!

Write to your Senator now and tell them to pass the PRO Act!

On March 9, the House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a critical bill that will reform labor law, expand worker protections, and punish employers who violate workers’ rights.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers have pledged do stand up and fight for workers. It's time for them to keep that promise.

We are calling on Congress to honor essential, frontline workers by passing the PRO Act immediately to restore balance to our labor laws and give more workers the voice they need to earn a good, middle class job in our economy.

Stronger unions mean higher wages, safer working conditions, and dignity for all people who work. The PRO Act is our first step to get there.

Use the form to write a letter to your Senator: Tell them to vote “yes” on the PRO Act.

Click to tell Your Senator to Pass the PRO Act!:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-senator-to-pass-the-pro-act

Dear Friend,

Our public schools and union rights are under attack. Please tell Senator Ileana Garcia to stop the attack on educators. Vote no on SB 1014.

Senate Bill 1014 is an attempt to divide educators and to take away freedoms educators and district staff currently have to collectively fight for what is best for students and our community. Please tell Senator Ileana Garcia to vote against the bill.

Will you join us and write a letter? Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/senator-garcia-stop-the-attack-on-educators-vote-no-on-sb-1014

After you have submitted your letter, please help spread the message:

Retweet: https://twitter.com/UTD_AFT1974/status/1372669412608708609

Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnitedTeachersofDade/posts/3951610531544404

Call her district office at (305) 442-6841

*SB 50 has not yet been amended to match HB 15, but it will.

Background: Florida’s Unemployment Insurance System (UI) is not a worker benefit program but a business insurance program. Nationally, UI was established after the Great Depression to make sure that unemployed workers maintained some spending power to keep businesses functioning during periods of mass layoffs.

Businesses pay premiums (now called taxes but really, they are insurance premiums) for this insurance trust fund. This fund is where UI benefits for unemployed workers come from. In 2011, due to an insolvent fund, businesses pushed to keep their premiums the same, rather than increasing as the law says. They did this by slashing benefits and eligibility so workers paid the price to keep these premiums low. That is what led to the crisis last year.

This time around, the fund is low and by law, business premiums are supposed to go up. In order to keep these premiums the same, they are going to start collecting taxes on internet sales (raising taxes on workers) and then put those newly generated dollars into the insurance trust fund to keep business premiums the same, just like 2011. Workers will be directly bailing out businesses and paying businesses insurance premiums FOR them!

• These bills are not new taxes in the strict sense, but they are new laws to require the collection of a tax already owed. WE DO NOT OPPOSE THIS, IT IS WHAT THEY ARE DOING WITH THE NEW MONEY COLLECTED, ESTIMATED TO BE ABOUT $1 BILLION IN THE FIRST YEAR.
• The injustice here is that workers will be paying more taxes and that those taxes will be used exclusively to pay for an Unemployment Insurance system that has failed them miserably.
• If workers are paying more taxes for the UI system, shouldn’t some, or all, of that money be used to fix the broken UI system and not to bail out big business?
• It is big businesses’ responsibility to pay for unemployment, why is it fair to shift that responsibility to working families? Especially when the majority of unemployed workers never received a single penny from the UI system last year…or now!

It will be very difficult to stop this bill in entirely. What we want to do is get the word out that that it is wrong to force workers to pay for a failed Unemployment Insurance system that is not being fixed. We hope to generate noise to slow the process a bit and let us work to improve the situation.

We talk about raising taxes to get attention but the focus must shift to a message of using that funding to bailout big businesses. Here are some slogan ideas as requested.

Taxes for Worker Benefits – Not Big Business Bailouts

Take Care of Workers First

Workers Suffering – Taxes for Us, not Big Business Bailouts

Legislature Raising Our Taxes – Shouldn’t We Get Some Help?

Unemployment Has Failed Us – Why Must We Pay for it?

No Tax Hikes on Families for Big Busines Bailouts

We Need Unemployment Reform Now

Big Business Pay Your Fair Share

They are saying this is about protecting small businesses, but this is about economies of scale. This is about shielding companies with thousands of employees from paying their fair share for the Unemployment System.

Summary of the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319)

Below are some highlights of the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package enacted this week:

Public Health.
Provides $48.3 billion for testing, contact tracing and personal protective equipment (PPE); $7.5 billion for vaccine distribution; and $5.2 billion for procurement of vaccines and supplies. Provides $10 billion to expand domestic production of PPE, vaccines and medical supplies under the Defense Production Act.

Workplace Safety.
Provides $200 million for pandemic-related worker protection activities at the Labor Department, half of which would go to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to support OSHA enforcement and worker training in high-risk sectors such as meat processing, health care, correctional facilities and agriculture.

Relief for State and Local Governments.
Provides $350 billion in aid to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to help deal with the budgetary impact of the pandemic, including $195.3 billion for states and Washington, D.C.; $130.2 billion for local governments; $20 billion for tribal governments; and $4.5 billion for U.S. territories.

Education.
Provides $125 billion in state grants to help local educational authorities reopen K-12 public schools safely, address instruction loss and support students as they recover from the effects of the pandemic. Provides $39.6 billion to colleges and universities and their students, at least half of which must be spent on emergency financial aid grants.

Direct Payments.
Provides $1,400 in direct payments to individuals making less than $75,000 and married couples making under $150,000, and for dependents claimed on federal tax returns.

Unemployment Benefits.
Extends pandemic-related unemployment assistance that was set to expire on March 14, including the current $300 supplement to unemployment benefits (called “Pandemic Unemployment Compensation”), for another six months through Sept. 6. Provides that the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits received by taxpayers making less than $150,000 will not be subject to federal taxation.

Relief for Multiemployer Pensions.
Provides about $86 billion in financial assistance to struggling multiemployer pension plans, which the plans will not have to repay, to cover all benefits due through plan year 2051, with no cuts to accrued benefits.

Full COBRA Subsidies.
Subsidizes 100% of health care premiums of COBRA-eligible individuals who lose their job or had reduced hours, who will not have to pay any premiums, for six months. The employer or health plan can claim a refundable tax credit against their Medicare payroll tax liability for the cost of the premiums.

Airline and Aerospace Payroll Support.
Provides $15 billion for the wages and benefits of employees of airlines and contractors in the airline industry, on terms similar to airline payroll support in previous legislation: no layoffs or pay cuts through Sept. 30 or whenever the assistance is exhausted, whichever is later, and the continuation of current restrictions on stock buybacks, dividend payments and executive pay. Provides another $3 billion to create a payroll support program for aviation manufacturers.

Transportation.
Provides $30.4 billion for grants to transit agencies, which can be used for operating expenses, including payroll costs and PPE, and $1.7 billion for Amtrak in fiscal year 2021, including funding to recall furloughed workers and restore the frequency of long-distance routes.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Extends eligibility for the PPP forgivable loan program to more tax-exempt groups, including 501(c)(5) labor organizations. Creates a new $28.6 billion grant program for restaurants.

Child Tax Credit.
Reduces child poverty by expanding the child tax credit through 2021, increasing the maximum credit to $3,600 for each child younger than 6 and $3,000 for other children, and making the credit fully refundable.

Child Care. Expands the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to $4,000 per child or $8,000 for two or more children, and makes the credit fully refundable. Provides $39 billion for child care, including $15 billion in grants to states to help low-income families afford child care and help essential workers regardless of their income and $24 billion for state grants to child care providers.

Federal Employee Leave.
Provides $570 million to create an Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund to provide up to 15 weeks of emergency paid leave for civilian employees and postal workers, including those who have COVID-19, who are caring for someone with COVID-19, are looking after children during virtual classes, or are obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine. Provides $13 million for an Emergency TSA Employee Leave Fund and $9 million for an Emergency FAA Employee Leave Fund.

Paid Sick Leave and Paid Family and Medical Leave Tax Credits.
Extends current tax credits through September 2021 and expands eligibility to include state and local governments. Employee Retention Tax Credit. Extends the current tax credit through Dec. 31, 2021, and increases the percentage of wages covered for severely distressed businesses.

Earned Income Tax Credit.
Expands the earned income tax credit for taxpayers without children for 2021 by increasing both the credit percentage and phaseout thresholds.

Veterans.
Provides $386 million to create a rapid retraining program for veterans who are unemployed because of the pandemic.

Housing.
Provides $21.6 billion for emergency rental assistance to prevent evictions and $10 billion to help homeowners avoid foreclosure; $5 billion for emergency public housing vouchers; and $5 billion to address homelessness.

Nutrition Assistance.
Extends a 15% increase to monthly benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through Sept. 30, 2021.