Atlanta labor leaders, community groups and unemployed workers are protesting Gov. Brian Kemp’s recent decision to end supplemental federal unemployment aid.

Last Thursday, Kemp said Georgia will no longer participate in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides an additional $300 a week to Georgia’s unemployed. The PUA, which supplements unemployment pay, will end June 26 in Georgia. The federal program ends in September, but Kemp is opting out of the program next month in an effort to get more Georgians to go back to work sooner.

One labor advocate called Kemp’s decision “another attack against working people,” particularly women and minorities.

“Making that decision is like coerced labor,” Sandra Williams, executive director of the Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council, told Atlanta Civic Circle. “ Georgia Labor Commissioner] Mark Butler has made no attempt to open his offices, but he wants people to go back to work.”

The Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

The council will hold an in-person press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the headquarters of Georgia Labor Department, 223 Courtland St., in downtown Atlanta. Expected to attend the event are State Reps. Kim Schofield, Sandra Givens Scott, Tonya Anderson, representatives from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, the NAACP of Greater Atlanta, the Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta, as well as several unemployed workers. Wednesday’s press conference is open to the public.

Kemp’s decision comes as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed face mask policies nationwide and gas prices are soaring in Georgia, putting workers in potential financial and physical peril, Williams said.

Many low-wage workers make less than $7.25 an hour, the state minimum wage. Some workers — home health aides and child care workers, for example — earn $5.15 an hour, Williams said.

“We want to bring public attention to this,” Williams said. “People have no idea that this is going on around them. People need to know the suffering going on in Georgia.”

In Georgia, roughly 3.1 million residents — or 29 percent — are fully vaccinated. The state trails the rest of the country in this regard. Williams also noted that Georgia employers will not be held liable for guaranteeing their businesses are safe.

“We must get past this narrative that unemployment benefits are a disincentive to work. This is absolutely not the case,” Williams said. “Millions of mothers were forced to leave the workforce through no fault of their own in order to take care of their children. Our workers are still fearful of returning to work in unsafe environments, especially in sectors with the highest risks of COVID death. Our unemployment benefits have been a lifeline, and choosing to eliminate these critical benefits will have the greatest impact on Georgia’s most vulnerable workers. Yes, their labor is essential, but so is their lives.”

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(Header: Protests at the Capitol. Photo by Hannah Jones)