12/11/2009 - Trade Act Information Sessions
Trade Act Information Sessions in Pendleton and La Grande
Drove out to Pendleton Wednesday night to attend Trade Act Information Sessions for the laid-off workers of the now-closed Fleetwood RV manufacturing plants in the Pendleton and La Grande areas. Under the Trade Act, workers who have lost their jobs during a Trade Act certified lay-off are eligible for certain benefits like training, job-search cost reimbursement, relocation cost reimbursement and income support. Trade Act certification occurs if the DOL determines the lay-off is due to increased imports or shifts of production out of the United States. Trade Act implementation is a little convoluted - there are a lot of facets to program elements and many, many different deadlines. It is administered through the state, also, not the local service-providers as most employment/re-employment programs. As a result, three people from the Oregon Employment Department (OED) held training and information sessions in Pendleton and La Grande so that laid-off workers would know what opportunities were available to them through Trade Act, and so that staff at the local service providers would know where to guide these workers for these benefits. David Carpenter, Ricqué Jones-Smith and Rhonda Worrell from OED were on hand to conduct these sessions.
The most important bit of information to take away was: if you are eligible for Trade Act and have questions, call OED's Training Programs Unit at 503.947.1800 or 1.800.436.6191.
Thursday morning I attended training for CAPECO Staff in Pendleton. In the afternoon there were two information sessions for people laid-off from Fleetwood. The schedule was the same on Friday for the sessions run in La Grande with TEC.
In summary: There are two main elements of the Trade Act: Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA). Under TAA, eligible workers may be able to access Reemployment Services, Job Search Allowance, Relocation Allowance and Training, depending upon the availability of federal funds and the individual eligibility. Two important conditions must be met before these services can be accessed: there must be no suitable work available in the individual's labor market and all individuals must apply and be approved in advance. If you relocate, for instance, and then ask for reimbursement it will not be allowed - you must get everything approved in advance. There are also many deadlines for eligible workers to keep in mind - although most of them are based on increments of 30 days or 26 weeks (half a year). Training under TAA has many requirements. Click on Training to read about them.
The other element is Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA) which is basically extra unemployment/income support. Someone who wants to take advantage of TRA must have exhausted all their regular and extended unemployment benefits and be enrolled in TAA Training, although Training Waivers may be sought. There are a lot of extensions for unemployment benefits right now, so many eligible people may never access their TRA benefits because they will not have exhausted their regular and extended unemployment benefits.
One other possible benefit is the Health Coverage Tax Credit which may allow a TAA recipient to pay only 20% of qualified health insurance premiums for themselves and their family members.
The weather was clear and cold over there - I had hoped it would drop below zero degrees fahrenheit, just for the fun of it, but never saw it go below 3°. Hit some freezing rain on the way back home Friday night and got to fish-tail a little bit, but managed to get home safely (and very slowly).
- Monty
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