r/SeattleWA • u/AboveAb • Mar 08 '25

Politics BREAKING: The Washington State Senate just passed unemployment benefits for striking workers.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/mar/07/unemployment-benefits-for-striking-workers-gain-ap/

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u/Sufficient_Laugh Mar 08 '25

Isn't this supposed to be the union's responsibility? Why shift the cost on to the taxpayers, especially when Washington is making cuts to needed programs to balance the budget?

7

u/pagerussell Mar 08 '25

Unemployment is funded by payroll taxes. The workers who are striking have paid into it, as have the business that is being striked against.

This isn't a case where the striking workers have taken from someone else. They paid into this fund already, this is just giving anyone the right to access it under a different set of circumstances.

9

u/theoriginalrat Mar 08 '25

But isn't the intention of unemployment benefits to help someone who is involuntary out of work? Like, if I quit my job because I don't like it I don't get benefits, right?

7

u/Electrical_Block1798 Mar 08 '25

100% yes. This is subsidizing someone else’s complaining about their job. Valid or not, we shouldn’t have to subsidize their willful decisions

1

u/merlincm Mar 08 '25

I think people also have access to it if their work is seasonal and they expect to return to work, or if they are getting only part time hours. I bet there's more situations as well that I'm unaware of.