Campaigns

Tell us your story!

Devastating cuts to federal unemployment benefits are hitting nearly two million long-term unemployed workers across the country -- part of the mean and mindless federal budget sequester.  These already-modest benefits, so essential to help support jobseekers and their families while they struggle to find work -- are being slashed by the mandatory sequester by anywhere from 10.7% to 22% depending on the state and its implementation schedule.  Sequester cuts to federal unemployment benefits will make tough times for unemployed jobseekers even tougher.  They're bad for families and communities; they're bad for the economy.  And they are a wound inflicted solely by Congressional obstruction.

Help fight back against the damaging sequester cuts to federal unemployment benefits.  Tell us how these cuts are affecting you and your family.  Tell us your story! 

 

Expose Discrimination Against Unemployed Workers in the Job Market

If you've been told you would not be considered for a job simply because you are unemployed -- tell us your story!

In today's already-tough job market some employers, staffing firms and recruiters are explicitly excluding job applicants based on their being unemployed -- or based on a certain duration of unemployment.  To the extent that this kind of discriminatory exclusion is practiced by employers or their agents, it makes finding new work that much more difficult for millions of unemployed jobseekers.

Our work to expose these harmful discriminatory practices has helped to make it a national concern -- recently prompting the New York City Council to enact strong protections and ban these practices outright.  Efforts to overcome discrimination against unemployed jobseekers have been spurred on by the stories of many workers who have directly experienced these exclusionary practices.

If you have been told directly and specifically -- in writing, in person or by phone -- that you would not be considered for employment simply because you are unemployed or "not currently employed," we want to know the details of that experience.  Tell us your unemployed discrimination story!

Florida's Unemployment Claims System Illegally Denies Benefits to Jobless Floridians

If your claim for unemployment insurance in Florida has been unfairly denied due to the new online "skills assessment test" or online claim filing requirement, tell us your story.

Changes made two years ago to the claims filing system for Florida unemployment insurance benefits have created an illegal barrier to those benefits for tens of thousands of qualified claimants.  A combination of online-only filing and a maze-like application process -- including an extensive, academic "initial skills" assessment as an online requirement -- allow the state to summarily delay and outright deny benefits to many Floridians who should be receiving them.

We have heard from scores of unemployment claimants in Florida who have wrongfully experienced these benefit denials.  They have described what are often nightmarish tales of frustration, lack of information and outright deception -- some being denied benefits even after completing absolutely every filing requirement.

If you have been unfairly denied unemployment benefits due to the "initial skills" online assessment or system issue with the online filing requirement, tell us your story!