PUP’s Unemployed Organizing Committee has had a busy winter! Every other week, dozens of unemployed people come together on how to access the benefits they deserve and fight for a better unemployment compensation system. Drawn from the nearly 3,000 workers that have reached out to PUP with unemployment issues this year, the UOC strategizes on how to win concrete goals that will remove barriers to getting benefits in a timely manner. Our UOC is currently making sure that the voices of unemployed Pennsylvanians are heard loud and clear in Harrisburg by Department of Labor and Industry leaders and elected officials, even after the newspaper headlines about the pandemic unemployment crisis have faded.
This winter, our UOC members have met with the Department and Labor Industry to outline the systematic problems that have caused benefits to be delayed by weeks or months. Our UOC members have given video testimony on the impact that adjudication delays, computer errors, identity verification problems, and other issues that have caused undue economic pain and suffering to workers in the Greater Philadelphia area. It’s our goal to not only resolve our individual claims, but bring about a speedy, just, and accessible unemployment compensation system for all.
The Philadelphia Jobs Club meets every other Wednesday at 2pm via Zoom.