Legislation Would Correct Recent Supreme Court Decision Granting Unemployment Benefits to Nurses on Strike
After the state Supreme Court ruled that striking hospital nurses from Lourdes Medical Center were entitled to collect unemployment, Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande has introduced legislation to make it clear that anyone who voluntarily participates in a work stoppage cannot collect unemployment checks.
“There is a clear difference between being forced into unemployment and choosing to go on strike,” Casagrande, R-Monmouth and Mercer, said. “We cannot afford to artificially swell our unemployment roles especially when the state’s unemployment insurance fund is nearly bankrupt. Unemployment needs to be spent on people who lose their jobs, not people who are dissatisfied with their current employment terms.”
The measure, A-3782, would prevent striking workers from receiving unemployment benefits even if their employer continues operation – which is why the Supreme Court justified granting the benefits to nurses who went on strike at the Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in 2004.
“That ruling sent an open invitation for workers to strike,” Casagrande said. “If workers can collect unemployment, what’s the incentive for negotiating in good faith to avoid a strike? The ruling subsidizes workers who strike at the detriment of taxpayers who fund unemployment benefits and employers who will be forced to hire replacement workers as they are confronted with more frequent work stoppages.”
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April 16, 2009
