Pa. House approves bill opening unemployment benefits to striking workers
Source: Union Progress
by Andrew Goldstein
October 9, 2025
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would make unemployment compensation benefits available to workers who go on strike in the commonwealth.
The sponsors of the legislation — state Reps. Rick Krajewski and Elizabeth Fiedler, both D-Philadelphia — said that state law prohibits striking workers from receiving unemployment compensation, which leaves the workers struggling to pay bills, buy groceries and take care of other necessities during contract negotiations.
“Going on strike is an incredibly important safeguard and option of last resort for workers fighting bad bosses. It is a federally protected right under the National Labor Relations Act. But what good is a right that we can’t afford to exercise?” Krajewski said in a news release. “When our nation has created the wealthiest men in history while workers still struggle to put food on the table, providing unemployment compensation for workers who are taking the courageous step of withholding their labor is a necessary intervention.”
House Bill 145, which aims to amend the state’s unemployment compensation law, would allow striking workers to collect unemployment compensation benefits after the mandatory one-week waiting period if they meet all of the other standard requirements.
A striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette employee walks a picket line outside of the Butler Eagle’s printing facility on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. (Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
Read more: https://www.unionprogress.com/2025/10/09/pa-house-approves-bill-opening-unemployment-benefits-to-striking-workers/
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