Labor leaders demand reform from Gov. DeSantis as 74,000 Floridians seek benefits
A view of the historic Old Florida State Capitol building, which sits in front of the current New Capitol, on November 10, 2018 in Tallahassee, Florida.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Labor leaders say Florida workers need relief sooner than later, and are calling on Governor on DeSantis for sweeping reforms to the state's unemployment system.
More than 74,000 people appliesdfor unemployment benefits in Florida last week. It's a tenfold increase from the week before as the spread of COVID-19 shut down the state's theme parks and visitors stayed away from its hotels and airports.
The extraordinary jump in unemployment benefits applications came the same week that the largest theme park resorts in Florida — Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa — closed their gates and emptied their hotels, cruise lines halted trips and Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended on-premise food and alcohol consumption at Florida restaurants and bars.
DeSantis has eased up on some of the requirements, issuing an executive order this week that eliminates the need for applicants to apply to five jobs a week to receive benefits.
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Florida labor leaders on a conference call Thursday demanded that DeSantis reform the unemployment benefits system in order to make it easier for out-of-work residents to access $4 billion in a trust fund for the system. The governor needs to simplify the application process and hire more workers to process applications, they said.
Other states with smaller populations — Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio — had double the number of applicants for unemployment benefits as Florida, a state criticized by lawmakers and labor leaders for offering paltry benefits with burdensome conditions. Florida pays a maximum of $275 a week for 12 weeks.
Some applicants have complained that the process is too difficult.
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Paying the rent and keeping food on the table is a big worry for an increasing number of people right now. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 3.3 million people filed for unemployment last week. That’s the highest it has been since the 1970s.
According to an online petition, organizers said out-of-work Floridians are finding unemployment benefits "meager" and nearly impossible to understand. They said the governor has the power to change this.
Here are some key demands they are making:
- Waive work-search, availability, work registration, and one-week waiting period requirements
- Increase weekly benefit cap, expand maximum number of weeks for eligibility to 26 weeks as a base
- Institute the Alternative Base period, allowing workers to county their last quarter of work to meet eligibility requirements.
Florida AFL-CIO, the federation of labor unions representing more than a million workers, released a statement Thursday saying Florida has some of the lowest unemployment benefits in the nation, and some of the most needlessly strict criteria to qualify for them as well. The federation is urging workers to sign the petition and send the governor a message: "It's time to fix our broken system."
The Associated Press contributed to this report