CALL TO ACTION- SAVE DOL JOBS!!!

            President Bush’s proposed FY 2003 budget contains proposals that are a real threat to all Department of Labor employees’ jobs.  Overall the proposed budget would cut $25.8 million in funding for employment and training programs, including the Dislocated Workers program and the Adult and Youth Workforce Investment Act programs.  The threat doesn’t end there; the President proposes to make the states responsible for financing the administration of the unemployment insurance program by reducing the FUTA payroll tax from 0.8% to 0.2% by 2007, which will cost New York $320 million a year when fully phased in.  In addition, he wants to transfer veterans’ employment and training programs from the Department of Labor to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which many believe is the first step towards gutting and privatizing those programs.  We need your help to defeat these proposals to ensure adequate services to the unemployed and your job security.

To effectively fight these threats to services to the unemployed, and your job security, we need your help to get the word out, mobilize our DOL members, and lobby our congressional delegation.  PEF has over 3000 members who work in DOL.  If half of these members write to their U.S. Congressional Representatives, U.S. Senators, and local newspaper editors about these issues, we will have a much greater chance of defeating these proposals.  Here is how you can help:

ü      Distribute the hotlinked fact sheets and the sample letters that follow to the PEF members at your worksite and encourage them to write to their U.S. Congressional Representatives, U.S. Senators, and local newspaper editors.  Ask them to send or e-mail a copy of their letters to PEF Research Department at the address on this letter head or pefresearch@pef.org.

ü      Meet with your U.S. Congressional Representative in his or her home district office to discuss these serious threats to services to the unemployed.  Please contact PEF’s legislative office at 1-800-724-4997 or schamberlain@pef.org if you are interested in assisting in this lobbying effort.

If we work together we can defeat these threats to your job security and the services needed by the unemployed.  We will post periodic updates on the status of this fight on PEF’s website at www.pef.org on the “current news” link.  Please act today.

MODEL LETTER TO THE EDITOR*

Dear Editor,

President Bush’s recent budget proposals are a real threat to the employment and training services we provide to New York’s unemployed and underemployed.  Overall the President would cut $25.8 million in funding for New York’s employment and training programs.  The threat doesn’t end there; the President proposes to make the states responsible for financing the administration of the unemployment insurance program by reducing the FUTA payroll tax from .8% to .2% by 2007, which will cost New York $320 million a year when fully phased in.  In addition, he wants to transfer veterans’ employment and training programs from the Department of Labor to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which many believe is the first step towards privatizing and gutting those programs.

New York’s economy and budget are already strained by the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center.  Unfortunately, New York’s economy is not going to recover quickly and most experts expect that our state unemployment rate will remain high for the next few years.  New York cannot afford to finance the administration of the federal unemployment insurance system. This unfunded mandate will not only make it more difficult for New York to attract and retain businesses, it will also bankrupt the unemployment insurance reserve fund which the FUTA tax partially funds.  Finally, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs has no experience running employment and training programs.  They are already overburdened and are not sufficiently financed to handle their veterans’ health care responsibilities, much less assume new responsibilities for unemployed veterans.

This is not the time to cut services to the unemployed, particularly unemployed veterans, or to put additional financial burdens on the state’s dire fiscal situation.  Congress should reject the President’s unwise proposals. 

                                                                  Sincerely,

*Find your local newspaper editor on line at  www.newspaperlinks.com

MODEL LETTER TO YOUR LEGISLATOR*

Dear  

I work in the New York State Department of Labor and am writing to ask you to oppose President Bush’s budget proposals that are a real threat to the employment and training services we provide to New York’s unemployed and underemployed.  Overall the proposed budget would cut $25.8 million in funding for employment and training programs, including the Dislocated Workers program and the Adult and Youth Workforce Investment Act programs.  The threat doesn’t end there; the President proposes to make the states responsible for financing the administration of the unemployment insurance program by reducing the FUTA payroll tax from .8% to .2% by 2007, which will cost New York $320 million a year when fully phased in.  In addition, he wants to transfer veterans’ employment and training programs from the Department of Labor to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which many believe is the first step towards privatizing and gutting those programs.

New York’s economy and budget are already strained by the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center.  Unfortunately, New York’s economy is not going to recover quickly and most experts expect that our state unemployment rate will remain high for the next few years.  This is not the time to cut services to the unemployed, particularly unemployed veterans, or to put additional financial burdens on the state’s dire fiscal situation.  New York cannot afford to finance the administration of the federal unemployment system. This unfunded mandate will not only make it more difficult for New York to attract and retain businesses, it will also bankrupt the unemployment insurance reserve fund which the FUTA tax partially funds.  Finally, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs has no experience running employment and training programs.  They are already overburdened and are not sufficiently financed to handle their veterans’ health care responsibilities, much less assume new responsibilities for unemployed veterans.

Please take all action necessary to defeat these unwise proposals that will hurt the unemployed and the state workers who serve them.   

                                                                  Sincerely,

*    1)  E Mail your elected representatives from http://politicalaction.nysut.org/

2)  Snail mail your letter to  

Senators Clinton and Schumer

The Honorable (full name)

Find your representative’s address at http://congress.org/congressorg/issuesaction/stateletters/?state=ny

To a Representative:

The Honorable (full name)
Find your representative’s address at http://congress.org/congressorg/issuesaction/stateletters/?state=ny