It takes just three minutes to slam the door shut on any argument behind congressional Republicans' cruel refusal to maintain unemployment insurance benefits for jobless workers when we have an unemployment rate near 10 percent and five unemployed workers vie for every job opening.
Three minutes is how long it takes for jobless workers to tell their stories and urge you to help in a powerful new video. Please watch it and share it with everyone you know—e-mail or Tweet the link and put it on your Facebook page.
In the video, an unemployed auto worker, university researcher, pipefitter, legal secretary and others who have been unable to find new jobs describe just how important to their survival it is for Congress to restore emergency unemployment benefits that expired Nov. 30. Some of their comments:
They're my roof over my head. They're my electric bill. They're my food....Doctor's visits....My health insurance.
Without the unemployment, I probably wouldn't have a home....We're waiting for our home to be taken....All I see in my future is living in my car.
We just have to say a prayer, because I have no idea if the benefits are not extended.
We can get by on very little, but we can't by on nothing.
Watch the video now. Pass it along to as many people as you can. As the workers ask, call toll-free now at 1-877-662-2889 and tell Congress to restore emergency unemployment benefits--now.
So if you call now to do it for me and the unemployed like me, then these benefits will here for you if you find yourself in our situation.
Every day Congress fails to act, 38,710 jobless men and women lose their benefits--more than one every second. Call now. After you call, click here to send an e-mail your senators.
Don't forget on Dec. 7 to show your solidarity with jobless workers by replacing your Facebook and Twitter images with a jobless avatar (left). And change your status to: "In Solidarity with Jobless Workers." We will bring you more details this afternoon.
This is a crosspost from AFL-CIO Now blog.