Fellow travelers, it's time to take ACTION.
Here is my sample letter to our US Senators and Congressmen. Please feel free to reproduce it, edit it, distribute it via any and all means and above all use it yourself to contact your government officials. We MUST stand up for each other on this because who else will?
Dear Senator,
I received a very disturbing letter in December 08, it reads:
"Dear Combined Wage Claimant:
The US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration amended the regulations governing combined wage claims filed under the Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program. Beginning January 6, 2009, the definition of "Paying State", when filing a Combined Wage Claim, has been changed...
...this means, effective January 6, 2009 onward, that in order to file a Combined Wage Claim, you must have had employment and earned wages in the paying state's base period.
This notice is to inform you that for new claims effective January 11, 2009 and after, you cannot file a Combined Wage Claim with a certain State as the "Paying State" unless you had employment and earned wages in that certain State during it's base period, regardless of whether you traveled to be physically present in that certain State. Since this is a US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration ruling, all States must follow this amendment."
As a traveling worker this will hurt me and many other travelers. Before this new rule, we were allowed to file a Combined Wage Claim in ANY state as long as we had worked in at least 2 states. Please, work for us traveling workers to get this ruling reversed, and restore the old law.
Thanks, (Your Name)