Why can people on strike get unemployment benefits but those who quit can't? ESD rules confusion

Actually, this is a common misconception. In Washington, people on strike generally DON'T qualify for unemployment benefits because it's considered a labor dispute. There's a specific disqualification in ESD rules for workers participating in a strike or labor dispute. Your brother-in-law might be confusing this with lockouts (where employers prevent workers from working) which sometimes DO qualify for benefits.

I WAS ON STRIKE in 2023 and couldn't get unemployment!!!! The ESD agent literally told me 'you are not eligible due to participating in a labor dispute' so whoever told your brother that is WRONG!!! Tell him not to count on that money cause it AIN'T COMING!!!!

To clarify: Under WA unemployment law, workers are typically disqualified during a strike/labor dispute. However, there are some exceptions where striking workers might qualify: 1. If you're not participating in or financing the strike 2. If you're not a member of the grade/class of workers involved in the dispute 3. If you're locked out by the employer as a response to a strike And regarding quitting: While voluntary quits are generally disqualified, you CAN qualify if you quit with "good cause" (unsafe conditions, significant schedule changes, etc). Each situation is evaluated individually by ESD.

I think it matters if ur in the union too vs just working somewhere thats on strike. like if u work at the grocery store but arent union and then the union goes on strike and u cant work u might get unemployment but the actual strikers dont?? idk just what i heard

I went through this exact situation last spring! My union went on strike, and everyone who applied for unemployment got denied. It was really rough for a lot of families. We had to rely on the union strike fund which only covered about 30% of my regular paycheck. What's interesting is that after the strike, some people who weren't in the union but couldn't work because of the strike DID get benefits. So the rules definitely seem to penalize the actual strikers.

When I got laid off last year, it took me FOREVER to actually reach an ESD agent to sort out my claim issues. Called like 50+ times over several days and kept getting disconnected. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual ESD representative in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 Not sure if your brother-in-law will end up needing to file a claim, but if he does have questions about strike eligibility, talking directly to ESD is the only way to get definitive answers since these situations can be complicated.

There's also a timing factor with strikes that most people don't realize. The labor dispute disqualification has a "waiting week" too - so sometimes very short strikes (under a week) don't even come into play with unemployment because by the time you could file and serve your waiting week, you're back at work anyway. Probably why there's so much confusion about this topic.

my mom works for esd (not saying this as official advice just what she told me) and she said the big difference is that with strikes theyre looking at if you are "directly involved in the labor dispute" vs if you quit they're looking at if you had "good cause" which is a totally different standard. so its not really a fair comparison to begin with