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AFSCME Council 65 Represents over 1,600 workers in Minnesota's K-12 schools including special-education paras, bus drivers, office staff, maintenance, and food service employees. All of these workers take pride in the work they do to support Minnesota's students. They believe in our public-school systems ability to provide world class education to every student.
But because of state law saying hourly school workers have a "reasonable assurance" of having a job each fall, thousands of Minnesotans who are the backbone of our schools face no income and no unemployment every summer, despite other season jobs like construction workers being eligible each year during their off season. That means that this summer they *are not* receiving unemployment benefits even while it is unclear if their jobs will be there this fall and for how long. This hurts school staff, students, and our whole community. These jobs are done primarily by women and people of color and have been left behind for too long. It must be changed.
For years these hourly school workers have been pushing to change state law. But like many things that have been overlooked and undervalued for decades, COVID-19 has brought this issue to a boiling point. Fill out the form and follow the steps to send a letter to the Governor Walz and your State Legislators telling them we need immediate action to ensure school workers across Minnesota are eligible for unemployment in the summer as we all continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
