Tag: coronavirus

Why Higher Ed Workers Should Support the HEROES Act

On July 20th, critical business awaits members of the US Senate as they return from a two-week summer recess: the passing of the HEROES Act.  The US House of Representatives passed the $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act on May 15th, and it’s now up to the Senate to decide whether this federal aid will be there to provide relief to state, local, territorial and tribal governments as well as businesses and citizens who have been negatively affected as a consequence of COVID-19.

If the Senate fails to act, essential services will be gutted and hundreds of thousands of educators, healthcare workers and public employees such as firefighters, police, transportation and EMS personnel, teachers and other vital workers who keep us safe will be laid off. The HEROES Act offers comprehensive funding to maintain these jobs. 

Review this summary to see the range of support extended by the Act.  Provisions specifically for Higher Ed have been summarized here, and benefits to Pennsylvania can be found here. 

Join representatives from TAUP and other AFT unions at noon on Wednesday, July 8th,  to deliver a failing report card to Sen. Pat Toomey for his failure to support the HEROES Act.  Social distancing and mask wearing will be observed, and a limited number of people will be attending from each local. If you’d like to be among those attending from TAUP, please RSVP.

What does the HEROES Act Include?

Among the comprehensive and essential funding within the Act, there is:

  • Broad relief for college students.

  • New stimulus checks which will include adult dependents (such as our students) and immigrants.

  • Expanded student loan relief which will include economically distressed borrowers who have either federal or private student loans.  It will also include many who were excluded in the CARES Act because they were not eligible for federal student aid.  This penalized students based on their citizenship status, the currency of their  loan payments and their academic standing.

  • Suspension of payments and interest on student loans in addition to up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness.

  • Protection for students who are behind in their payments from wage garnishment and other forms of compulsory repayment.

  • Extensive healthcare measures, including the elimination of certain out-of-pocket expenses for COVID-19 treatment and vaccines, and there will be $100 billion in reimbursements to hospitals and eligible healthcare providers for certain expenses and lost revenue to prevent, prepare for and respond to COVID-19.

  • An extension for those eligible for COBRA to maintain their employer-sponsored coverage without paying premiums through January 2021.

  • Expanded federal, state and local COVID-19 testing and tracing.

  • Requirements from OSHA to  establish temporary emergency standards for employers to protect any worker at “occupational risk of exposure” to COVID-19, and the Department of Labor will need to create permanent standards to protect workers from infectious pathogens within two years.

  • A prohibition on t employers from retaliating against employees who report publicizing health and safety hazards.

  • Funding for hazard pay..

  • An extension of COVID-19 Unemployment Compensation: the $600/week FPUC, the PUA program for gig workers, independent contractors and business owners, and the PPP program for small businesses.

  • An extension of housing and food assistance.

Republican leaders in the Senate have stated that they will not vote on the HEROES Act in its current form and would prefer to wait to see if previous stimulus packages improve the economy, and the White House has stated that it would veto the Act.

It is up to us to push our representatives to pass this critical legislation. 

Tell your senator to pass the #HEROESAct at http://go.aft.org/HEROESActLetter.  And let us know if you’d like to attend the report card delivery to Sen. Toomey in Old City!

On Requests for Accommodation From Temple University  

This is a reminder to all members that the preliminary deadline for applying for an accommodation is June 30th, as per an email sent by the Deans to full-time employees.

Many of us are understandably leery of disclosing sensitive health information to an employer.  This is, however, a necessary process under the Americans with Disabilities Act for those with qualifying ADA conditions. Temple has also indicated that they plan to accommodate as many health, safety and other potential concerns that extend beyond the ADA’s technical parameters as they can.  But they have also stated that they may not be able to accommodate all requests.

Adjuncts and other faculty, librarians, and academic professionals have rightly objected to adjuncts not being included in this process thus far.  HR has been contacted and urged to include adjuncts immediately.  Everyone must be treated equitably, including acknowledging the fact that health insurance or having a regular medical provider are not things that many low-wage workers have access to.  Since many adjuncts are hired close to the start of the term, and there may not be sufficient time to process an accommodation, it is important that we are all pushing for sections which are added within the few weeks before the semester to be online by default.

It is troubling that the administration did not choose an approach where an individual could opt-in for working on campus.  That way, anyone who wished to work off-campus could be accommodated, and the focus could have rightly centered more on the safety of those who will be working in a riskier environment.  But since there is another process currently in place, there are issues to consider.

If you are going to apply for an accommodation, it is best to apply directly to Human Resources (HR), either through ada-hr@temple.edu or through the form available through TU Portal.  HR is not supposed to share sensitive health information with any supervisor in your college/school or department.  Rather, as part of the ADA process, HR should convey only the requested accommodation.  To facilitate planning, many Chairs’ and Deans’ offices have asked members to disclose whether they want an accommodation. It’s important to remember: you are under no obligation in this process to share any health information with anyone outside of HR.

The internal appeal process for an accommodation that is initially denied is not clear yet and it’s important that the administration provides clarification on this matter so that people know what to do if they feel their request has been unreasonably denied.  Given that Temple has set a preliminary deadline for requests, if you intend to seek an accommodation,  you should strongly consider making your request  within that time frame if possible. If you are not able to apply by the 30th but intend to do so, notify the University of your intent before the deadline passes.

Some of the reasons you may want to cite as potential justifications for an accommodation may not necessarily qualify as disabilities. If you are interested in requesting an accommodation but are unsure whether it qualifies under the ADA, you should still not hesitate in submitting a request.

If you believe that the response to your accommodation request is unreasonable, you should discuss it with HR to make sure that your concerns were understood and to gain an understanding of the decision that was made.  If things have not been worked out through this  follow-up, please contact the TAUP office.

Many of us would not have chosen this process, and it is difficult to decide whether to apply when so much remains unknown about the plans, campus conditions and what will happen once the semester actually begins.  These are intensely personal decisions that we each have to make for ourselves. As decisions about whether or not to apply for an accommodation, we all must remain committed to ensuring the health and safety of each other and of the entire Temple community.

Protecting Our Health and Safety:  A Survey

Since March, TAUP has been pressuring the administration to include campus workers in its response to COVID-19 and to communicate clearly and in detail its plans for keeping  everyone in the Temple community safe.

What has been learned thus far from these efforts can be found on our COVID-19 page.  Although some recent mass emails from the administration and some one-on-one conversations have provided some sense of Temple’s plans, there is still far too much that is unknown. Moreover in our Town Halls, meetings with departments and schools/colleges, and in one-on-one communications it has been made clear that our members have many fundamental objections to and questions about the approach being taken by the administration.

TAUP’s Executive Committee and Health and Safety Committee need your input to understand the full range of concerns about health and safety in the Fall semester.  Please fill out this survey by Saturday, 6.27 at noon.  Be sure to login using the email address that you receive TAUP communications on, and contact TAUP If you have any difficulties logging in.

The Health and Safety Committee has also sent a list of questions to the administration in preparation for a meet-and-discuss meeting on Thursday.  Together, the survey and the recommendations from the Health and Safety Committee will provide the basis of a document setting forth principles, conditions and procedures that need to be in place to safely work in the Fall.  The document will be circulated to be voted on next week by all dues-paying members.

In this way, we can all be on the same page, whether we are pushing for changes from within our departments and schools or during meetings with administration.  Our approach and expectations will be clear and we can all work in solidarity in ensuring that our campus workplaces are safe.

Given the administration’s initial resistance to including union members in important planning discussions, we can all expect resistance to additional suggested improvements. On a matter as important as health and safety however, the administration needs to make it clear that the principles, procedures and conditions that the faculty, APs and Librarians expect are being taken very seriously.  TAUP’s elected leadership will bring these concerns to central administration as everyone works to raise these issues within each of the departments, schools or colleges, especially since it is clear that significant policies are being set at a more local level.   Reach out to Jenna Siegel, our Staff Organizer, with your departmental or college based concerns so that we can support you in approaching your leadership and in being heard.

The majority of us have urgent questions and concerns about health and safety, and a key step toward addressing those concerns is through communicating them. Please fill out this survey asap.  The Executive and Health and Safety Committees look forward to being guided by your responses.