David Weidlich Testimony: Labor & Public Employees Committee Public Hearing

Testimony from David Weidlich, President, CWA Local 1298

Labor & Public Employees Committee Public Hearing

February 7, 2023

SB 938 AN ACT CONCERNING UNEMPLOYMENT FOR STRIKING WORKERS

Dear Senator Kushner, Representative Sanchez, Senator Sampson, Representative Ackert, and the distinguished members of the Labor & Public Employees Committee:

My name is David Weidlich, President of CWA Local 1298, which represents about 2,000 workers in the state of Connecticut. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of SB 938, regarding unemployment for striking workers.

Unionized workplaces raise standards for all workers, thanks to a collective bargaining process that allows them to negotiate fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. But that process is undermined when the balance of power shifts unfairly to the employer. 

That is exactly what’s going on in our state, because current law presumes that striking workers have left their jobs voluntarily, and are therefore ineligible to receive unemployment benefits.

I can tell you from experience that no worker takes the decision to go on strike lightly. 

Given the risk to their livelihoods through loss of income and the potential loss of their job, workers go on strike only when they have exhausted every avenue of the collective bargaining process.

But an employer who doesn’t have to pay unemployment benefits has far less incentive to bargain in good faith, knowing that the workers’ precarious situation could break the strike and bring them back to the bargaining table demoralized and financially diminished—or remove the option to strike in the first place.

SB 938 is not designed to enrich workers. It is designed to help avoid labor disputes by creating the conditions for good faith bargaining.

Our brothers and sisters in New York and New Jersey already have access to unemployment benefits when they go on strike. In New York, the waiting time was reduced from 7 weeks to 2 weeks in 2020. In 2021, when thousands of CWA healthcare workers in Buffalo were on strike for 40 days, unemployment insurance was a difference-maker that allowed them to continue feeding their families while fighting for better patient care. In the end, these courageous workers won their strike and settled with a contract providing some of the strongest patient staffing language in the country, which we all know is directly related to better patient outcomes and healthier communities. 

In New Jersey there is a 30-day waiting period, but they are currently considering legislation to reduce it to 2 weeks, as it is in New York. This is proven policy, with successful precedence of protecting workers and ensuring they are able to fully exercise their right to fight for better working conditions and wages. 

Connecticut should follow these examples so that our workers aren’t unfairly intimidated or financially imperiled by labor disputes and are able to fully exercise their rights. 

Thank you for your time and consideration. I urge the Committee to support these essential bills, and I would be glad to meet and provide answers to any questions you may have.

Respectfully Submitted,

David Weidlich Jr, President, CWA Local 1298