Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Calls on Legislature to Expand Unemployment Compensation

HARRISBURG, Pa., March 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has continued to announce increasing mitigation measures to protect public health from the spread of COVID-19. It is time for leadership in the state legislature to do their part to protect the safety and security of Pennsylvanians in this time of crisis.

The officers of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO are calling on the state legislature to expand unemployment compensation eligibility, raise the level of compensation benefit, and extend benefits to workers whose claims were about to expire. 

"We are all workers, and all of us have a job to do to fight this crisis. We've closed public places of commerce and altered our economic daily lives, for the sake of our health as a community and a Commonwealth. No one should be punished for that. Workers who have lost their paychecks due to the closure of all non-life-sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania should be paid what they are due in full," said President Rick Bloomingdale of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. 

"Our workers are fighting this virus on the frontlines and should not be tossed aside as collateral damage in 'an invisible war'. The health and safety of all working people is at stake. The elected men and women of the state legislature must do their job and expand unemployment benefits immediately," stated Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder. "Those not willing to do at least that, should step aside and allow others to step forward, or at least not take their salary until the crisis subsides."

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SOURCE Pennsylvania AFL-CIO