The only people who pay into Washington’s unemployment trust fund to keep benefits available to those who lose their job through no fault of their own are almost unanimously opposed to extending those benefits to workers who have a job but choose to walk out of it to go on strike, according to a poll result released today by the state’s largest and leading small-business association.
When asked if striking workers should be eligible to claim unemployment insurance benefits, 90% of NFIB-member, small business owners voted ‘No,’ 6% were undecided, and 4% voted in favor.
Every year, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) polls its membership, made up entirely of small business owners, on state and federal issues vital to their survival. Results center NFIB’s lobbying positions in Olympia and in Washington, D.C.
“Extending unemployment benefits to striking workers is such a bad idea, even as pro-union a governor as California’s Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar proposal in his state for the threat it presented to the solvency of his state’s unemployment insurance trust fund,” said Patrick Connor, NFIB’s Washington state director. “Any imbalance in our state’s UI trust funds means increased taxes on business owners. Washington lawmakers would be wise to follow Newsom’s lead and put the health of our UI trust fund first by turning down SB 5777”
