Reject ‘harmful’ bill

As our N.C. General Assembly plans to make changes/cuts to our unemployment insurance payments, I must express my opposition to House Bill 4-Senate Bill 6.

This is a harmful bill that would slash unemployment benefits for hardworking North Carolinians who are jobless through no fault of their own. North Carolina did not get into its unemployment trust fund debt problem overnight, and the solution is not to railroad a plan through on the backs of workers. The plan passed by the House last week will shorten the repayment period by three years, but it cuts benefits to workers permanently.

Unemployment insurance is critical to North Carolina’s families, communities and our economy. People who are out of work spend those benefits on critical necessities like rent, mortgages, food and clothing. It will impact young families and our children with no savings. These cut funds are also one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus for our community.

This bill will take North Carolina backward and will be one of the harshest cuts to benefits any state has ever enacted. We would stand alone in providing no federal unemployment insurance for long-term unemployed workers.

I urge our lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory to reject this attack on North Carolina workers.

Angaza Laughinghouse

President, UE local 150, N.C. Public Service Workers Union

Raleigh