Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Florida AFL-CIO Continues Fight Against Gov. DeSantis’ Decision to End Federal Unemployment Benefits

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

The Florida AFL-CIO reports that federal unemployment benefits for unemployed Floridians came to an end on June 26, ahead of the official September end date, thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Florida AFL-CIO has been leading the charge against DeSantis’ decision to end these benefits early. On June 24, the state federation submitted to DeSantis a petition with thousands of signatures from working people across the Sunshine State, calling for him to reverse this decision.

“Unemployed workers are not sitting around fattening their bank accounts on lavish unemployment checks,” said Florida AFL-CIO President Mike Williams (IBEW) in a recent op-ed for the Tallahassee Democrat. “That DeSantis is using a verifiably false story as an excuse to pull Florida out of the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program is troubling.” Read Williams’ full op-ed here, and watch the press conference here.