Georgia Democratic leaders are reacting to state labor departments nonetheless being closed

AUGUSTA, GA (WJBF) – Several democratic officials are calling for local employment offices to be opened. That is after more than a year of closure.

This video shows how representatives of the Democratic State are confronted in protests outside the Labor Office of the Georgia Department of Labor in Augusta on Wednesday evening.

“The sheriff showed up and they told us we were on their Labor Department property and he asked us to go across the street for our rally, and then I politely told him that it was public property is, “said Democratic Representative William Boddie Jr.

MP Boddie says he and a group of Democratic officials, union leaders and local activists have traveled across the state calling for rallies outside local career centers to open their doors. MP Boddie calls Wednesday’s incident a political tactic.

“You have the Georgia Department of Labor, the officials, instead of trying to help voters with citizens with unemployment claims, they call law enforcement people and citizens and leaders trying to get help for citizens who need the Department of Labor when they lost their jobs through no fault of their own, ”he said.

The Department of Labor offices have been closed across the state since the pandemic began.

“I’ve made calls and conversations with citizens who are considering suicide because they don’t know how to feed their families,” he added.

Labor Department commissioner Mark Butler said he was unaware of the incident. He says his workers obeyed the law.

“These people showed up unannounced with a protest in an office. It is a standard procedure for keeping employees safe without knowing who is at the door to notify law enforcement. If they think this is anything other than a basic procedure, it would happen in almost any situation in any government agency, said Labor Commissioner Mark Diener.

Commissioner Butler says they must keep their doors closed for the safety of their workers and that the closed doors are due to staff shortages.

“Our offices were hit very hard by the Delta variant. We have had over 40 positive cases, we have had four hospitalizations and three deaths in the last 60 days and one complaint, so those plans had to be put on hold, ”he said.

And while Democratic leaders say the Wednesday incident was a tactic, Commissioner Butler says the Democratic Party is also using its own tactics.

“They are trying to run for this post so they are obviously going to attack me personally, but they know why we are not open yet and they have all been informed,” said Commissioner Butler.

Commissioner Butler says there is no precise timetable for when these offices will reopen, but for now citizens have to do their own legwork.

“Honestly, these politicians have to focus on helping these people get back to work and letting them know, hey, there are a lot of jobs, if you look around our office there are probably job ads,” he said.