Urgent Action Needed to help our Brothers & Sisters in OES

Dear SEIU 668 Member:

The Pennsylvania State Employment Service is federally funded by the Wagner Peyser act.

The current proposed federal budget eliminates funding for the State Employment Service. This effectively privatizes the service and eliminates our member’s positions.

Our Union brothers and sisters in the Pennsylvania State Employment Service work very hard to provide the best service they can for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

Would you like to help us make a difference? Together, we can influence our decision-makers to help us stop the privatization of these positions.

Please send a letter to your US Congressman and US Senator. Please visit our web site at www.seiu668.org under Political Action, and find your elected officials for their addresses by district and a sample letter you can use “as is” or as talking points for a letter you compose yourself.

Please act on this as soon as possible! A threat to our brothers and sisters in the Employment Service could very easily set the precedent for the privatization of the rest of us. To quote a famous Pennsylvanian:

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”

Benjamin Franklin

In Solidarity,

Kathy Jellison
President

SAMPLE LETTER
Subject: Fund Wagner-Peyser

Dear Federal Congressional Representative ,

I am a public employee in Pennsylvania and one of your constituents.

I support the Pennsylvania Employment Service. That's why I'm seeking your help to protect and strengthen the Wagner-Peyser Act.

The Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 established a nationwide system of public employment offices that are known as the United States Employment Service (USES). This system has provided high quality job seeker and employer labor exchange service and information for seventy-five years. 

Our ability to provide quality employment services has been badly hurt by reduced funding over the years.  Now I hear that President Bush's eliminates Wagner-Peyser Employment operations.  This year over 13 million American workers will receive employment services, which are paid for by about 7.6 million employers, whom also use Wagner-Peyser funded employment services.  At an average cost of only $55 per participant, employmnet services are highly cost-effective.  The best evidence indicates this returns to society $2 for every $1 invested in the form of higher earning participants, more taxes paid and less income transfer to the unemployed.

Historically, this is consistently among the most cost-effective federal programs. States, employers, and workers will attest to its cost-effectiveness. This funding yields substantial benefits that will be lost under the Administration’s budget proposal.

I urge you to oppose any budget that does not preserve Wagner-Peyser Employment Service Programs and encourage you to increase funding for this important program.  Cutting or eliminating funding in a time of ecenomic slowdown would be an obvious mistake.  An additional investment in the Employment Service helps strenghten the resiliency of America's workforce in this troubling time.   

My colleagues in the Pennsylvania State Employment Service work very hard to provide the best service they can to the public under increasingly difficult conditions. We need your support and leadership to help us do an even better job for Pennsylvania’s employers and job seekers.  Plese write to your Colleagues on the Appropriations Committee and inform them of your concers and the need to restore and increase Wagner-Peyser funding.

Sincerely,