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Sign the petition to protect Unemployment Insurance

Jeremy Sprinkle
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Say 'NO' to backroom deals with big business

Recently, the Associated Press reported that select state lawmakers had met with the N.C. Chamber of Commerce to devise a plan that would change North Carolina's unemployment insurance system in fundamental ways, likely cutting benefits and making it harder to qualify -- all without input from workers or advocates for workers.

State lawmakers need to hear from you. Please sign this petition.

"A proposal this important to tens of thousands of North Carolinians struggling with unemployment should not be hatched behind closed doors without workers’ input," said Bill Rowe, director of the N.C. Justice Center. "And a decision to approve the proposal and move it forward to a vote in the 2013 legislative session should not be made without careful review and consideration of the impact on workers, their families and the broader economy."

We need your help! Please sign this petition to stop any backroom deal from being voted at a December 5 meeting of the Revenue Laws committee so that the proposal can be thoroughly reviewed and commented on by all stakeholders.

We the undersigned urge members of the North Carolina Revenue Laws Committee of the General Assembly to hold no vote on the proposal to reform the unemployment insurance system until there is time for careful review and input from the public and unemployed workers.

Moreover, we urge legislators to take an approach to reforming the system that does no harm to the important ability of the system to pay unemployment insurance - without borrowing - by ensuring that all employers contribute adequately in good times.

Click here to sign the petition.

"The tax cuts that were provided to employers in the 1990s, in combination with the historic Great Recession, are to blame for our current UI debt challenges," said Bill Rowe. "We cannot allow legislators to shift the responsibility of repaying that debt to workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are struggling to get by."