In a sign of the deepening Bush recession, laid-off workers in Pennsylvania received notice that their unemployment benefits were being cut effective January 1, 2005.
The 2.3 percent benefit cut was mandated by a "solvency trigger mechanism" in the PA Unemployment Compensation law. In 1988, in response to the UC trust fund's being in debt for more than a decade, the PA legislature enacted a law that adjusts, by a formula, worker benefits and employer/employee taxes in relation to the solvency status of the fund.
"Because of recession-related job losses, the UC Trust Fund has fallen from a record high $3 billion in 2001 to a projected balance of $440 million by the end of 2004," said PA Labor and Industry Secretary Stephen M. Schmerin.
This is the first time that the trigger mechanism has resulted in a mandatory reduction in benefits to laid-off workers, Schmerin added. The PA legislature, which has been under Republican control for more than a decade, failed to act to deal with the deepening financial crisis of the UC Trust Fund despite a years-long depletion of the fund's reserves, and now laid-off workers and their families are paying the price.
Please contact your PA representative and senator(www.state.pa.gov) and let them know thatlaid-off workers and their families should not have to bare the double burden of having their unemployment benefits cut because they were unfortunate victims of Bush's deepening recession.
In peace and solidarity, John Thompson,UE District Six, Political Action Co-chair.
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