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II. What Can the WIB do to Address this Issue? What Should Labor Representatives Consider?

A. Defining the Priority Populations

Most states are leaving it to WIBs to define the priority populations for their area. The decisions WIBs could make include:

• Which dislocated workers will receive priority for service.
• Which other adult workers in the local area are "at risk" and therefore should receive priority for service.
• Whether funds are limited and, if they are, how to conform to WIA's mandate that public assistance recipients and other low income adults must be given priority service.

1. Defining which dislocated workers will receive priority service.

In terms of dislocated workers, there are two questions:

• Should dislocated workers who are referred to One-Stops by Rapid Response get priority for service, and
• Which dislocated workers should get intensive and training services?

This second question is the same for all customers of the One-Stop, so it will be discussed later. But the first question is unique to dislocated workers.

Why would a WIB give preference to dislocated workers referred by Rapid Response? There is a lot of evidence that the sooner a dislocated worker gets service, the more likely s/he is to get a new job with comparable pay. Obviously s/he is also going to lose less income (and will use less UI funds). If the One-Stops put Rapid Response clients on a long waiting list, it undermines the value of Rapid Response.

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