{"id":591,"date":"2021-09-07T09:39:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T13:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/?p=591"},"modified":"2021-09-07T09:39:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T13:39:20","slug":"everyone-back-to-work-leftwing-nh-group-sues-for-more-free-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/2021\/09\/07\/everyone-back-to-work-leftwing-nh-group-sues-for-more-free-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone back to work? Leftwing NH Group sues for more &#8220;Free Money&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"ygPOJ5EyFR\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/nhjournal.com\/as-nh-businesses-beg-for-workers-progressive-group-sues-to-keep-fed-unemployment-bonuses-flowing\/\">As NH Businesses Beg for Workers, Progressive Group Sues to Keep Fed Unemployment Bonuses Flowing<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;As NH Businesses Beg for Workers, Progressive Group Sues to Keep Fed Unemployment Bonuses Flowing&#8221; &#8212; NH Journal\" src=\"https:\/\/nhjournal.com\/as-nh-businesses-beg-for-workers-progressive-group-sues-to-keep-fed-unemployment-bonuses-flowing\/embed\/#?secret=ygPOJ5EyFR\" data-secret=\"ygPOJ5EyFR\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As NH Businesses Beg for Workers, Progressive Group Sues to Keep Fed Unemployment Bonuses Flowing<br \/>\nPosted to Politics September 05, 2021 by Damien Fisher<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s lots of good news for the New Hampshire labor force this Labor Day. So why is a progressive group suing to force Gov. Chris Sununu to keep handing out unemployment bonuses? Bonuses that some economists have linked to the ongoing labor shortage that is hurting the economy?<\/p>\n<p>New Hampshire\u2019s unemployment rate has fallen to 2.9 percent, about half the national rate of 5.2 percent. Granite State businesses are struggling to fill nearly 39,000 job openings \u2014 double the number before COVID-19 hit.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is unemployment low and labor demand high, but wages are also soaring. At a national level, hourly worker pay rose again in August, and wages have jumped 4.3 percent over the past year alone.<\/p>\n<p>Nationally, some 10 million jobs are unfilled even as millions of potential workers receive both state and federal unemployment checks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe labor shortage is a big puzzle for economists, but some of the pieces are well known,\u201d writes Jeffrey Bartash at MarketWatch. \u201cFor one thing, millions of people are still collecting unemployment benefits that in many cases pay more than their old jobs did. That\u2019s because the federal government is temporarily doling out extra money to the unemployed during the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After saying he would keep the federal benefits coming, Sununu reversed course in May, under pressure from business owners insisting the labor market needed more supply, not more unemployment subsidies. Sununu didn\u2019t just end the stay-home payouts. He converted the federal funds into bonuses for employees who went back to work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cEveryone is looking to hire. Wages are starting at $15 or $20 an hour.<\/strong> This is an awesome opportunity for our citizens to get back to work,\u201d Sununu said at the time. \u201cEvery employer I talk to is looking for workers. They\u2019re desperate for not just the $300 to go away, which it will as soon as it can on June 19, but also now, we\u2019re kind of reversing course a little bit in a positive way and adding a stipend \u2014 an incentive \u2014 to get folks back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, the liberal activist organization, Granite State Progress, is suing the state of New Hampshire for withholding those federal unemployment benefits. It\u2019s part of a national campaign liberals are waging against work mandates. Those benefits are scheduled to end this week regardless because Congress declined to extend them.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, which got its first hearing on Friday in the Hillsborough Superior Court in Nashua \u2013 at the start of the Labor Day weekend \u2013 seeks to have the extended unemployment benefits started under the CARES Act last year reinstated retroactively.<\/p>\n<p>Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of Granite State Progress, said ending the unemployment benefit has no relation to helping the workforce. Instead, she insists it hurts families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCutting unemployment benefits didn\u2019t lead to significant job gains, it led to more financial uncertainty for already stressed Granite State families,\u201d said Rice Hawkins. \u201cThere are real barriers to workforce re-entry, including childcare and other caregiving responsibilities, health issues, transportation, finding employment that matches your skills and training, and other such factors. The Sununu administration could have focused on any of those instead of taking away people\u2019s benefits.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In May, then-CEO of the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association Jim Roche lobbied Sununu to end the benefits early because they created an \u201ceconomic drag.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(The benefits) make it easier for some unemployed individuals to choose to stay at home rather than return to work,\u201d Roche said.<\/p>\n<p>Granite State Progress, a 501 (c) 4 political lobbying organization, is backing the lawsuit against the state as part of its overall lobbying efforts. Granite State Progress has led public relations campaigns backing gun restrictions, in support of transgender rights, and against Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut because of his conservative political views. It also runs a website that tracks state representatives who are part of the libertarian Free State Project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe work year-round to challenge conservative propaganda and make sure that progressive perspectives are heard,\u201d Granite State Progress states in its mission statement.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit is one of 15 other lawsuits activists have brought against Republican governors over the early end of the CARES Act unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n<p>The New Hampshire lawsuit focuses on the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), in the CARES Act. The PUA covers workers who are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits, such as self-employed people, independent contractors, gig workers, and people who started a job too recently before becoming unemployed. <\/p>\n<p>Attorney Mike Perez, representing four unemployed Granite Staters in the lawsuit, said the goal is to get the PUA reinstated in New Hampshire and retroactive benefit for his clients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did ask New Hampshire Employment Security to reinstate PUA before filing suit, but we have not heard back from them in response to that request,\u201d Perez said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The question some are asking is why Perez\u2019s clients aren\u2019t filling one of the many unfilled New Hampshire jobs?<\/p>\n<p>Judge Jacalyn Colburn is expected to issue a ruling in the case in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>About the Author<\/p>\n<p>Damien Fisher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As NH Businesses Beg for Workers, Progressive Group Sues to Keep Fed Unemployment Bonuses Flowing As NH Businesses Beg for Workers, Progressive Group Sues to Keep Fed Unemployment Bonuses Flowing Posted to Politics September 05, 2021 by Damien Fisher There\u2019s lots of good news for the New Hampshire labor force this Labor Day. So why [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenturcotte.org\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}