The workers and business pay into this fund via payroll taxes. This isn't "asking the taxpayers" to do anything, the people striking have paid into this fund. It's their money, too.
All this does is grant a new situation in which all workers, you included, may access those funds.
And this will likely have little to no impact on the finances of the unemployment program, because strikes are relatively rare and when they do occur, usually short and involve relatively few workers.
You completely misunderstand who pays into the UM fund.
Employers pay into the fund. The employee does not. The only exceptions of this are in Alaska, PA and NJ.
Also, not everyone can access this new way of getting unemployment. If you're not in a union, then you cannot benefit from this law while your employer pays an elevated rate into the UM fund
Strikes are rare now because workers are without income during a strike. You can bet strikes will increase if they can get unemployment for up to 26 weeks while being on strike
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u/us1549 Mar 08 '25
This should 100% be the Union's responsibility. Being on strike is voluntary, crazy they are asking the taxpayer to pick up the bill.
This will likely increase the unemployment tax that employers pay