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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow North Carolina Transformed Itself Into the Worst State to Be Unemployed
Across the country, unemployment systems are collapsing under an unprecedented number of claims. But some state systems, like North Carolinas, have long made it harder to receive unemployment benefits.
By Ava Kofman
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June 30, 2020 2:27 p.m.
By March, when the coronavirus began accelerating through the United States, Shawn Hill-Watkins had been working as a cashier at a Food Lion supermarket in High Point, North Carolina, for seven months, taking three buses to work and back each day. She couldnt afford the groceries she was ringing up for customers, but she had always been outgoing and knew how to keep the mood upbeat. Older regulars at the market sought out her line. They knew her by the colorful silk flowers she had sewn for herself, which she would wear behind her ear.
Hill-Watkins is 50, with six children and nine grandchildren. For years shes lived around Virginia and in Philadelphia, making ends meet as a hairdresser, a seamstress and a house cleaner. Last June she came to North Carolina with her youngest son, Devan, after one of her daughters, who was in an abusive relationship, called her for help. Her daughter later left, but Hill-Watkins decided to remain. She had gotten the grocery job and eventually moved into a room with a kitchenette in an extended stay hotel just off Interstate 40 in Greensboro. Devan, who is 15, had made friends on a local football team. Hill-Watkins had been running around trying to help her children for two decades, she said, and I felt like I couldnt run with them anymore.
Despite the rising risk of COVID-19, Hill-Watkins and her fellow cashiers were not wearing masks in early spring. It wasnt long before she came down with something that seemed to be the virus. She was too sick to work sleeping for hours and coughing up phlegm but not sick enough to go to the hospital for testing. By the time she got back on her feet, a week and a half later, the store had reduced her hours to zero, where theyve stayed ever since. (Food Lion said it doesnt comment on any specific associate matters and that it continues to follow guidance from all health authorities.)
On April 20, Hill-Watkins filed for unemployment. For two months, she didnt hear a word from the Division of Employment Security, or DES, the agency that operates North Carolinas unemployment insurance system. By June 19, when her $1,261.60 monthly rent was due, she had $30 to her name. There is a real possibility that we will be outside tomorrow, Hill-Watkins told me a day before her rent deadline. I wake up thinking about it. I go to sleep thinking about it.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-north-carolina-transformed-itself-into-the-worst-state-to-be-unemployed
-snip-
And just to the west sits #Moscow Mitch from Kentucky sitting on a bill called the Hero's Act..............who's worse................
malaise
(269,050 posts)There will be lots of work to do but a kinder, gentler USA can emerge -a this is a serious moment in history.
Turns out that countries with decent public health fared much better than this neo-liberal free market health care for the rich.
Jspur
(578 posts)still very cynical considering I had your sentiment back in '08 during the financial crisis. We all saw how nothing really changed or got better after '08.
malaise
(269,050 posts)Without society the market is also vulnerable - you cannot privatize life's essentials
doc03
(35,345 posts)had been laid off since April and hasn't got a penny of un-employment yet.
turbinetree
(24,703 posts).................
doc03
(35,345 posts)with them over 10 years ago. The last time I was un-employed back in 2009 you would be on hold for hours to talk to someone.
littlemissmartypants
(22,692 posts)From the article:
Such an attempt to reverse course is precisely whats happening in North Carolina right now. Since March, Roy Cooper, the states Democratic governor, has signed several executive orders to temporarily remove some of the obstacles from the application process. The orders waive the requirement that applicants search for work; eliminate the one-week waiting period between filing for unemployment and receiving benefits; and allow employers to file claims for entire groups of workers who have been laid off. (The DES, according to Rhoades, its spokesman, has also acted to improve its processes, technology and staffing levels to respond to the surge in claims, including by adding an online chat feature and increasing staff from 500 employees to 2,600.) The orders show, Evermore said, that when the government decides to clear away the roadblocks to paying benefits, it can.
Still, none of those changes are permanent; they expire when the governor rescinds his declaration of the state of emergency. North Carolina Democrats hope the crisis will create an opportunity to make permanent changes, just as the 2008 recession did for their Republican counterparts.
If you don't believe state and local politics are relevant to your daily life this is proof otherwise. I am thankful for Governor Cooper but he can only do so much. We need to fight hard to give him a better legislature. We certainly don't need a leader who uses a phrase from Forest Gump as his campaign slogan and representatives who habitually schedule votes in the middle of the midnight hour, attempting to hide their evil machinations.
Thanks for sharing this, turbinetree. Unfortunately, it reveals that North Carolina, as bad as it is, is not alone in it's dysfunction.
❤ lmsp
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)(Apologies for the language!)
Jspur
(578 posts)agree with you. We had a streak of great democratic leadership starting from the Governorship in which we had a Democratic Governor for 24 straight years until 2012. We also had a democratic majority state senate for over hundred years up until 2010. We were known prior to 2012 as one of the most progressive southern states. All hell broke lose once McCrory became governor in 2012. Him and his republican majority senate created a lot of destruction. I feel my state has been punished severely since Obama won in it in '08. We have been a testing ground for the Koch brothers, and all these other horrible republican entities. Before we didn't get their attention.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)and have been to my fair share of Occupys and Moral Mondays -- what happened to NC starting in 2010 is shocking. This might help going forward:
This startup wants to help people move from San Francisco to places like Raleigh
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article243876332.html
It won't help with those struggling with housing costs, unfortunately, but the thought of Nancy Pelosi librulz descending on Raleigh puts a smile on my face.
Jspur
(578 posts)has been a blessing for North Carolinians. I'm definitely going to donate money to his campaign. Can't afford to get another Republican governor especially with them controlling the state senate.
turbinetree
(24,703 posts)Over the year the libertarian BS over the last years has made this country what it is, they have taken out tax dollars and gave it to those that should be giving it to us , because without us, they would absolutely nothing, not even a pot to pee in..........and for #Moscow Mitch to make $18500..a mouth doing absolutely nothing says that he is not defending the country or its people...........his federalist society is a criminal organization, they hate the preamble to the Constitution/........................
turbinetree
(24,703 posts)Jspur
(578 posts)She has a go fund me page that has generated over 11,000 dollars in the last week. So at least there is something positive that came out of this story. Here is her link if you want do donate money https://www.gofundme.com/f/from-homeless-to-stability-in-an-rv
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,349 posts)crickets
(25,981 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,349 posts)Just in case, here's the plain link:
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/05/while-millions-lost-jobs-covid-19
crickets
(25,981 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,349 posts)The difference between a thing being clicky or not is inconsistent. I can wave my mouse pointer around the screen and watch its image change as it passes over obvious and not so obvious links, but it doesn't change as it passes over some buttons within the page.
Sorry about traipsing OT.