Dear Brothers & Sisters,
As you are probably aware, it’s election year again and we just finished the Legislative Session.
With so much going on it is hard to keep up with what is going on at the Capitol. But this last 60-day session saw our enemies attempt to jam through a bad unemployment bill in the last week session. They tried to pass five different versions of the unemployment bill, but our friends at the Legislature stood strong and fought to kill any version of the bill that cut benefits.
Unfortunately, a last-minute backroom deal took place and an unemployment bill was passed late Saturday night. The final version freezes the current weekly benefit rate. This “freeze” means that the weekly benefit amount can never increase, as things get expensive in the future. The bill also mandates more work search requirements for people seeking benefits. Thankfully, our friends were able to keep our local hiring hall agreement, so you are protected and you do not need to follow the new work search requirements.
I cannot stress enough how much our friends in the House of Delegates fought the unemployment bill. They also managed to kill a bunch of other bad bills that would have helped shady contractors not report your tax dollars. These elections matter! However, if we keep electing the same bad politicians, they will just bring the same bad bills back year after year.
That is why it is so important to pay attention to the enclosed endorsement list and get rid of those people that do nothing for the state of West Virginia, or more importantly do nothing for you. This election we need to elect people that understand our issues and will try to pass laws that help working people instead of harming them.
As you will notice and I have said it before “party affiliation doesn’t affect our endorsements”. As always, if you want to ask about anyone our endorsement list feel free to call and ask. PLEASE DO NOT GET YOUR ELECTION INFORMATION FROM SOCIAL MEDIA!
Fraternally,
Charles A. Parker
Business Manager