Georgia Labor Commissioner decides kids should go hungry

Thousands of Georgia workers are struggling and desperate this summer because of a sudden decision to end the small weekly stipend they earned during the school year. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their cars. Their phones are turned off. The food pantries are running out of food. Children are going hungry. Health care? Forget it.

They are contract workers for the state's educational system. They're employed by Sodexo, First Student and Aramark, to name a few. For many years their unemployment benefits tided them over during the summer, when they were laid off. They'd learned to live on the small unemployment benefit they'd earned while going to work every day.

This spring, Labor Commissioner Mark Butler suddenly ordered a stop to those benefits. Workers had no time to plan or to save for the lean months. As many as 64,000 were shocked to find they no longer had the $150-$200 a week they'd worked hard for all year.

Mark Butler. Heckuva job.

There are no jobs now for them in Georgia. There is no pay.

Velmar Hightower and Alvin Edwards stood up and spoke out for their fellow workers. Sister Hightower worked in food service for Aramark at Spellman College. When she suddenly lost her unemployment benefits in May, she got involved with the Justice for School Workers campaign led by Jobs With Justice. But it's been hard for her:

I can't pay my bills. I have no income. I got a letter of eviction and I can't pay my utilities. I'm low on food. I can't pay my car note. My cell phone was turned off. It's hard. I only have my mom, and I'm tapped out borrowing from her. She works at Georgia State for Sodexo, and she's out of work too. 

Brother Edwards is a retired deputy sheriff who worked as a First Student bus monitor for special needs children in Savannah. He speaks for the 700 members of Local 728 in Atlanta who lost their benefits.

So many can't pay their light. So many can't pay their water. So many can't pay their rent. We're grateful to the union. People piled in to get a bag of groceries. You hear the stories over and over. We were grateful for the extra cornflakes.

Mark Butler has two children, Sydney and Blake. They look well fed. We're quite certain they get all the cornflakes they want.