Month: April 2021

Unemployment Workshops begin May 1

The worst of the pandemic is hopefully behind us.  Still, for too many at this time of year, job insecurity remains.
Unemployment workshops for new applicants

TAUP is offering free unemployment workshops to help our bargaining unit members.  As a worker, you pay into unemployment  in every paycheck. It’s insurance that is there to cover you when you need it.

It is important to understand your eligibility and how to apply to secure your benefits.  The process is unfortunately complicated for school workers, and the pandemic has increased the time people have to wait before receiving a decision about their eligibility and their benefits.  But even with that lag, if you are eligible you will be able to collect back pay, but only from the day you first  applied, so it’s important that you do so as soon as possible. You are allowed to apply on the first day that you are no longer a Temple employee, based on the end date of your appointment letter.

Even if you are working, if you have experienced a drop of 10% or more in pay that’s due to a decision from your employer, you may be able to collect partial benefits. 

Workshops are scheduled for the following dates and times:

  • Saturday, May 1st, 11 a.m.
  • Wednesday, May 5th,  7 p.m.
  • Friday, May 7th, 6 p.m.

To sign up for a workshop, click here. 

If you applied at the end of Spring 2020 and were eligible

The recent American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package)  has extended your benefits.  Even if your benefit year will end in May of this year, you should be automatically enrolled by the state in the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program where you will continue to receive benefits until the first week of September.

If you have questions about the status of your eligibility, contact Jennie at jennie.taup@gmail.com

 

Black Lives Matter

“That it was even a question that a murder, which took place on video for the world to see, would result in anything but a guilty verdict says all there is to say about how little trust there is in our institutions to hold the powerful to account.”
-Arthur G. Steinberg, President, AFT Pennsylvania

TAUP is relieved to hear of the guilty verdicts and hope that this brings some level of satisfaction to the family of George Floyd and the many who labor for racial justice and against police brutality.

Yet even as this verdict was announced, another life was lost. Sixteen-year-old Ma’khia Bryant was shot and killed by a police officer in Ohio.

More than 5,000 Americans have been shot and killed by a law enforcement officer since 2015, according to a Washington Post database of police killings.

The rate at which Black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for White Americans.

Reform is not enough.  Policing in this nation must be transformed, and we cannot wait to start that transformation. We need resources such as mental and medical care, jobs, transportation, food, and housing. We need a system that actually serves rather than harms our communities.

We must continue the struggle to rethink community safety in ways that center humanity and empathy rather than punishment and violence, and hence, create a system that will actually make our communities safer.

Please join us as we work with the labor movement, community organizations, and elected leaders to make this vision a reality.

Black Lives Matter.