No, when the laid off UAW members are collecting 80% of their pay, they are not eligible for any unemployment benefits. Because they are not permitted to file for unemployment, that would suggest that they are not counted in the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment data.

What's kind of amazing about this UAW benefit is that almost every single UAW worker being paid this benefit are earning more on an hourly basis for doing nothing than virtually every worker being paid by the hour that we encounter in The Villages. Plus, the UAW members get free and extensive hospitalization insurance. I'd bet that less than half of the people we encounter in TV on a daily basis have any health insurance at all. Those that do are paying a fairly substantial part of the premiums, I'd guess.

On the "fairness" question--is it fair that the taxes paid by workers in Florida be used to bail out the auto companies whose UAW workers enjoy such pay and benefits? The answer is obvious, but who can do anything about it?