Union rallies for laid-off workers Snowe, Collins urged to support stimulus package that favors the unemployed

AUGUSTA – A few dozen members of the Maine AFL-CIO gathered in front of the Edmund Muskie Federal Building in Augusta Friday afternoon to call on U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to support an economic stimulus package that would provide help to the growing number of workers laid-off as the economy weakens.

“An economic stimulus package that gives United Airlines a billion and a half dollars so they can close their facilities at Portland Airport and lay people off is not a very good economic stimulus package,” said Ed Gorham, president of the Maine AFL-CIO. “A good package would be one that put dollars into the pockets of unemployed Mainers so they can go out and buy their groceries, and pay the rent and pay for their health care.”

Several laid-off workers and their families were on hand to tell their stories. Eric Knowles, 28, of Gardiner, his wife and two children stood with Gorham, as Knowles explained his family’s precarious financial shape since being laid off a month ago by a Gardiner paper company.

“Four weeks ago I brought home $400, and that was a small week,” he said, “On unemployment I get $292 a week and I can’t pay my bills and my wife is diabetic and I have medical costs I can’t pay.”

Knowles said he is only one of thousands of Mainers who have lost their jobs in the worsening economy. He said he has been accepted in a job-training program to get new skills, but will be forced to survive on unemployment for months.

“Weekly [unemployment] claims in Maine for the week that ended Oct.13 were up 21 percent over the same week a year ago,” Gorham said. “There are thousands of Mainers that need help, and they need it now.”

Gorham denounced the House-passed stimulus package as nothing but “a bunch of tax breaks for big business and the wealthy.” He called on Collins and Snowe to support a package that would provide extended unemployment benefits to laid-off workers and federal help in paying for health care.

He said the package also should provide help to the states so any stimulus efforts are not undercut by states raising taxes or cutting programs because of the economic downturn.

While the protest was under way, Snowe, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, was in meetings in Washington trying to craft a compromise stimulus plan with other moderate members of the Senate. She agrees with many of the goals of the group rallying in Maine and has supported an extension of unemployment benefits for 13 weeks, with the federal government picking up the full cost.

“Within the centrist coalition, we are working to address the disagreements on the thorniest issues, including the subsidy for health care costs for displaced workers,” Snowe said. “I believe we should meet these health care needs, and have joined with Sen. Jim Jeffords, the independent from Vermont, on a plan to provide an advanceable, refundable tax credit for purchase of COBRA coverage. This will ensure that displaced workers can maintain their health coverage.”

Collins said she is very concerned about workers who have been laid off and said she will “insist” any package provide for a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits.

“My proposal goes farther than the president’s by making all 50 states eligible for the program, not just those that satisfy stringent ‘triggering’ criteria,” she said. “American workers have made this the strongest economy in the world. We need to give them our support as the country works to regain the economic ground we’ve recently lost.”

Snowe said the final package would be different from the House-passed bill. For example, the plan being pushed by the centrist coalition would speed up the timing of changes to the lowest and second-lowest personal income tax brackets. The measure would increase the amount of income subject to a new 10 percent income tax bracket from $6,000 to $8,000, and decrease the current 27 percent tax bracket to 25 percent. The top tax rates would not be changed.

President Bush wants a compromise stimulus plan adopted by the end of the month, but Snowe said it is more important to “get it right” than to swiftly adopt a plan.