in our Spotlight on Business Report students aren't the only ones protesting on this Mayday labor organizations rallied in New York today demanding better unemployment protections for roughly 700,000 unemployed workers in New Jersey it comes after a report earlier this month found those workers are left out of the state's unemployment insurance system with immigrants lowincome workers and people of color most affected senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports thousands and thousands lack the resources needed to effectively recover from loss of employment nearly a dozen workers organizations gathered in Military Park in Newark today to commemorate International workers day and to use the moment to propose a new plan for New Jersey's most vulnerable workers called the New Jersey job bridge program we here celebrating May Day the day international workers day but also we are here demanding a safety net for all excluded workers in New Jersey their movement was launched by a recent report from the center for popular democracy that showed more than 700,000 workers are excluded from the state's unemployment benefits program New Jersey is at the Forefront of what an unemployment insurance system should look like across the country but there are still a lot of workers who are not receiving unemployment benefits either because they're ineligible or they are having trouble accessing those benefits that means extending the safety net to independent contractors to Gig workers to workers with Aon immigration status to students that are seeking work right now to formally incarcerated people as they rejoin the workforce the self-employed and the caregivers that's what we're here today we are here to say pass the job bridge program folks like Marlene who says she's paid into the unemployment fund for years but couldn't access the benefits when she needed them I'm consider essential worker I work in a natural uh products Factory for over 20 years and due to health issues I had to uh resign and I wasn't able to get any support at all the State's Department of Labor has pointed to the high marks New Jersey received in that report and the efforts they're still making to reach those left out one of the drivers um of this department is to provide Equitable access um and we work hard to reach some of the most vulnerable populations um our work through the Community Partners um is doing a lot of that in reaching workers and ensuring that eligible workers are receiving benefits as legislators finalize this year's budget this group is asking them to fund this program Maybe by taxing massive corporations that have benefited the most from low-wage workers New Jersey has a large warehousing and and Logistics industry that um that benefits a lot from uh you know working class Freelancers and gig workers we need they are you know they are able to pay much lower wages because of the fact that those workers are currently excluded from unemployment benefits um you know we're thinking about other industries that really thrive on on trying to keep wages low and benefits low there's a lot of exploitation when it comes to undocumented workers um here in Jersey the Department of Labor uh is very active uh in the recent past in fighting combating that exploit ation they see a lot of wage theft um failure to pay wages John Marino is with the painters union and says even if it's a controversial idea undocumented workers should be protected by unemployment benefits our Union um supports workers regardless of their status um and we're backing the job BD program because it doesn't leave any worker behind um all workers are entitled to a safe um and dignified work please so this Mayday marks the first of the month and the first day of what's sure to be a long fight ahead for these workers groups to bring this program to reality in Newark I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news [Music]