In 2020, workers excluded from COVID-19 federal stimulus funds, including undocumented workers, people married to undocumented immigrants, and workers in the informal cash economy such as street vending, along with citizen worker-owners who were denied employment insurance and pandemic unemployment assistance because many were not classified as employees, organized the Excluded Worker Campaign. BCI signed on as one of the lead organizers of the campaign, which secured more than $61 million for workers.
Earlier this spring, DC’s Mayor stole the final $21 million in assistance as part of her budgeting process. In response, the Excluded Worker coalition has created the Stop the Swipe Campaign, which over the past few weeks has put pressure on the DC Council to restore the stolen money to excluded workers. Today, we celebrate that campaign was successful in convincing the DC Council to restore the $21 million for workers!