By Teresa Mosqueda and Rebecca Johnson
From The Stand

On Monday, July 23, Rep. Mike Sells (D-Everett) and Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) held a Joint Committee work session on this decade’s epidemic: unemployment.

The Washington State Labor Council shared our video of workers’ stories about searching for work and the impact being unemployed has had on their lives and their families.

University of Washington Professor Dr. James Gregory commended the committee for “breaking the Great Silence” of unemployed workers whose voices have been largely ignored by federal lawmakers and mainstream media.  Click here and here to see and hear additional video testimony from unemployed workers in Washington discussing how important the Unemployment Insurance safety net is to our families and our economy.

The workers who came to the hearing spoke for so many who could not be there: Unemployment Insurance is a true lifeline. Unemployment benefits go right back into local communities. Families rely on this UI for groceries, rent, transportation — essentials that literally keep people alive while searching for work. And in their voices, we heard the psychological and emotional toll of struggling to keep their families together. As one worker said, “Love goes out the window when you can’t put food on your family’s table.”

The first day of the Unemployed Hearings, held at the University of Washington on March 30, 2012, have been edited into an hour-long program that will air regularly on UWTV (Channel 27 in the Puget Sound Region). The first three air dates scheduled:

• Thursday, July 12, 4:00pm
• Friday, July 13, 12:00am (midnight)
• Friday, July 13, 1pm

The edited program is also available to watch on the UWTV website.

By Steve Leigh
From Socialist Worker

By Jerry Large
From The Seattle Times

By Aaron Burkhalter
From Real Change News

The It Gets Better campaign created an online movement to normalize homosexuality and push the conversation about homophobic bullying into the mainstream.

People across the country started posting inspirational messages on YouTube to young gay students, telling them their lives would improve.

The movement, started by gay activist Dan Savage, caught on quickly. Celebrities and even President Barack Obama posted videos of their own.

A new campaign, Unemployed Nation,  hopes similar YouTube videos can remove the stigma of unemployment by putting a face on the issue.

People are posting YouTube videos at unemployednation.org to share their experience of joblessness.

Participants in these online conversations will also meet face-to-face in two days of hearings convened by the King County Labor Council and academics at the University of Washington.

Panels of unemployed people will speak at hearings March 30 at the University of Washington and March 31 at Seattle City Hall.

But where Savage’s campaign promised things will get better for gay youth, there are no such assurances for the long-term unemployed.

By Lily Katz
From The Daily

“If I don’t have any value to anyone else, what kind of value do I have to myself?” asked Colin McMullin, a Washington native and Boeing engineer who was laid off in 2009. “The last three years have been the toughest years of my life.”

McMullin and other Washingtonians came to the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall last Friday to share their stories of unemployment at the Unemployed Nation Hearings.

The hearings were organized by the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council, the Washington State Labor Council, and several other campus sponsors.

James Gregory, director of the Harry Bridges Center, was especially inspired to organize the hearings after seeing three-quarters of his class raise their hands when he asked if his students knew someone who has struggled with unemployment in the Great Recession.

By Katherine McKeon
From The Seattle Weekly

Sandwiched between sweater-vested academics, local people affected by the sputtering economy emotionally relayed their personal struggles with finding work during today's Unemployed Nation Hearings.

At first glance, both types of experts are indistinguishable from each other. But the people who don't call the ivory tower home sang the clearer tunes.

One testimony came from a middle-aged family man, a former engineer at Boeing. Having been unemployed for three years, he said technology firms look for young people, not for people who have two degrees and two kids.

"No matter how many resumes I send out, I don't even get a response," he said. "If I don't have any value to anyone else, what kind of value do I have for myself? It's a very demeaning experience, and it's apparent to my family and friends."

Another witness, a woman who was laid off from her work at a vocational job-placement office, told those in attendance she once found herself in line with over 300 people, all applying for one position.