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Maine Voices: Unemployment benefits legislation would fix what's not broken

Proposed at Gov. LePage's request, L.D. 1725 would weaken laid-off workers' access to a critical lifeline.

By TIM BOYNTON

WESTBROOK - Like far too many people in Maine, I'm currently unemployed. In April 2011, after working there for 37 years, I was laid off along with 139 of my co-workers at Associated Grocers of Maine.

After being told that Associated Grocers was closing, we were literally taken to the curbside and told, "Here you go" -- let go without severance pay or being paid for our remaining vacation or sick time.

Unemployment benefits are helping me get through the period between losing that job and finding a new one. They pay for groceries and my electrical bills. I don't know where I would be without them.

But the system that helps workers like me is under attack from Gov. LePage, who thinks that people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own aren't any better than thieves. Per his request, the Maine Department of Labor put together L.D. 1725, a bill that weakens laid-off workers' access to this crucial lifeline.

First of all, it penalizes workers who had earned vacation time before they were laid off. L.D. 1725 would make workers wait to collect unemployment for each week of vacation pay they had earned. This is unfair.

Second of all, the bill requires people collecting unemployment checks to take jobs far below their skill set after only six weeks of searching. This bill makes it harder for laid-off workers to find a job in their field and makes it harder for them to keep body and soul together while finding a new job.

In the worst economy since the Depression, it is wrong to restrict access to the benefits that help people who are barely keeping above water. Unemployment benefits are a crucial protection for workers who have not been fortunate enough to find other jobs yet. I don't know where my old co-workers and I would be without them.

Unemployment benefits help keep food on the table, help with transportation so laid-off workers can go to job interviews and give people time to get their heads on straight and figure out what comes next.

When your income stops, your bills don't. Unemployment helps fill that gap.

Our system is not broken. Maine is one of only 10 states whose unemployment insurance fund has remained solvent throughout the recession. And according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Maine has the fifth-lowest rate of unemployment fraud in the country. We have the lowest rate of fraud in New England.

L.D. 1725 is trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist, while ignoring the real issue: a lack of jobs. There are dozens of applicants for every job opening in Maine. I've put in more than 30 job applications, and I've had only one interview from those applications.

L.D. 1725 will do nothing to create jobs -- in fact, it will hurt the ability of workers to find jobs that match their skills and experience level.

More than 48,000 Mainers are unemployed right now. Under L.D. 1725, these unemployed workers would have to consider taking jobs that pay less, are farther from home or are substantially different from their current work after just six weeks of collecting benefits. It will also force unemployed workers to take jobs well beneath their skill and wage level.

Forcing engineers to drive trucks or telling ironworkers to wait tables won't help us recover from the recession. We will strengthen Maine's economy only when we take full advantage of our workers' skills. This bill is the equivalent of slapping a Band-Aid on a broken leg.

Worse, it punishes people who are out of work through no fault of their own. I've been through some hard things in life, but losing my job was psychologically devastating. It feels like you've lost everything because everything is connected to working -- your home, retirement, security, your sense of worth.

Laid-off workers are also facing a crisis at the national level. Some in Washington want to weaken access to unemployment by allowing states to divert unemployment benefit dollars to other purposes.

This plan, which House Republicans are pushing, would also create a number of unnecessary barriers to collecting unemployment benefits.

U.S. Department of Labor data shows that 2.8 million Americans could lose access to unemployment insurance should this plan pass. I hope our senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, will oppose any efforts to weaken this system at the federal level.

Unemployment benefits are a very meager lifeline that helps me and thousands of others in Maine stay afloat and get back to work. Let's focus together on creating jobs, not hurting those without jobs.

Tim Boynton is a resident of Westbrook.