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Opposes HB 1379

This concerns Indiana House Bill 1379 that proposes construction workers work 42 weeks a year or be considered a seasonal worker, not eligible to draw unemployment and the effect it could have on you.

I have worked construction full-time for the last 15 years for non-union and now union contractors. Sometimes I've been laid-off for a week to three months due to weather conditions, but never thought of myself as a seasonal worker. I work in the rain, 15- degree cold and 100-degree heat because when you do not work you do not get paid.

There is no severance paid, no percentage of your wage base or bonuses. All you get is the check for the last day you worked. If not for your unemployment check, you would have no income at all.

How many people would have to look at welfare, food stamps or state assisted insurance for their kids who never had to look there before, passing the burden onto those already stressed systems?

This bill is a short-term fix for the state with long-term effects. When people can no longer make a living working construction or other socalled seasonal work, what quality of workers will you get for your hospitals, schools, libraries, bridges and roads? Will migrant workers do these jobs and send your tax dollars back to their country, or will out-of-state contractors take your tax dollars back to their state?

I think the legislature should look in their own backyard to save a buck or maybe release some of the one billion dollar rainy-day fund from the sale of the toll road and other assets because when I look out my window, it is pouring rain.

Steve Altman

Monticello