During the state House Labor committee’s recent hearing on the Worker Protection Act (HB 1076)—a bill that would allow whistleblower enforcement of workers’ rights law—big business lobbyists were there to testify in opposition, just like they do every time there’s a Good Thing for Workers on the docket. Recently, they’ve also opposed higher wages, sick days, and basically every other worker protection currently on the books.

And gosh, these biz lobbyists sure were in extra special business lobbyist form during the hearing…

It has now been more than a month since the last time ESD reported wait times and other similar claims processing data— the department's last report covered data through the week ending December 26, 2020. Key data has not been updated since then. Instead the department's data reporting dashboard simply says "thank you for your patience."

Working Washington and Fair Work Center support SB 5061, the unemployment reform proposal sponsored by Sens. Keiser and Conway which would raise the minimum weekly benefit, reduce employer unemployment taxes, and make other changes to a state unemployment system which has failed to do its job of paying benefits promptly to those who lose work. We also urge legislators to expand the bill to do more to support workers in need.

However, while the current draft of SB 5061 does take some useful steps to improve the system for workers, the current draft does not address the single most important issue workers have faced: it fails to do what is necessary to give workers confidence they will receive benefits promptly when they lose work.

While the current draft of SB 5061 does take some useful steps to improve the system for workers, the current draft does not address the single most important issue workers have faced: it fails to do what is necessary to give workers confidence they will receive benefits promptly when they lose work. Here’s what needs to change to better support workers in need:

In 2020, our public health crisis became an economic crisis. Entire industries turned upside down, communities were devastated, and more than a million people filed for unemployment. Black, brown, and immigrant workers are bearing the greatest impacts — more likely than white workers to be essential workers exposed to COVID, more likely than white workers to lose their jobs, and less likely than white workers to collect unemployment benefits.

We cannot emerge from this crisis without addressing the underlying inequities that have made the virus hit so hard and the economy crash so unevenly. As a multi-racial, multi-industry organization uniting working class people across the state, we call on our elected officials to adopt the following reconstruction agenda to ensure we support workers who have lost income, strengthen labor standards & protect public health, and tax the wealthy to fund a just recovery.

The key consideration in the Governor’s plan is public health — not restaurant revenue or restaurant owners’ political power. That’s good news. And we’re pleased to see that the new roadmap reflects the basic reality every restaurant worker knows: indoor dining is not an essential service, and it is simply not safe right now.

But much much much more must be done to provide workers relief, and we cannot afford to wait for federal action.

The economic and public health crisis has hit workers hard. In response, we shifted our priorities to address the urgent needs revealed by this crisis.

Read more about 11 victories we accomplished together in 2020 and how you can help us build an even stronger worker movement in 2021.