Understanding Unemployment Insurance Reform

On Nov. 17, SAG-AFTRA Executive Director, New York Local, Labor Policy and International Affairs Rebecca Damon served as a panelist on Unemployment Insurance Reform: Challenges & Opportunities for New York State's labor movement, a webinar hosted by Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina, co-director, New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute. While New York and New Jersey have provisions in place for striking workers, unemployment insurance reform is necessary across the country to support workers who must go on strike to fight for fairer wages and working conditions. Damon spoke to the need for reform as well as the important part that unemployment insurance played in SAG-AFTRA’s historic strike. The other panelists included Ann Burdick, general counsel of Writers Guild of America, East; Olga Brudastova, president of UAW Local 2110; Bhairavi Desai, founding member of New York Taxi Workers Alliance; Alvaro Gonzalez, organizer of Laborers Local 79; Josh Kellerman, director of public policy at RWDSU International Union; and Nicole Salk, senior staff attorney in the worker’s rights and benefits unit at Brooklyn Legal Services.