Union Checklist: What To Do Once A Layoff Notice Arrives

Over the past two decades unions have helped establish many of the very best response systems to closures and layoffs. The following is a basic checklist of questions to guide union leaders once a layoff notice arrives. The checklist offers a list of activities and tools that unions have employed to provide benefits and services to members affected by job loss. In the near future we will post another checklist to help unions plan and provide appropriate training and job placement services to dislocated workers.

• Review advance notification contractual provisions
• Review federal notification regulations including Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) which requires a 60 day notice for mass layoffs of 500 or more workers at a site or at sites of 50-499 employees where 33% or more are affected.
• Review applicability of Trade Adjustment Act and NAFTA/TAA in cases of job loss due to increased directly competitive imports or as a result of trade with Mexico or Canada.

Has the union been fully informed and involved?

• Insist that state or local layoff Rapid Response staff work closely with the union leadership to assist the workers and companies facing layoffs.
• Assure that the public Rapid Response effort does not interfere with the requirement that an employer negotiate the effects of a closure with the union.
• Insist that any on-site meeting or contact with workers upon receipt of information about a potential layoff or closure includes union representation.
• Require that layoff aversion strategies such as employee buyout and other opportunities receive full consideration.
• Create workforce adjustment committees with full union participation to develop a comprehensive plan for assisting workers. Union participation should begin with the early presentation of the committee concept.

Has the union taken steps to respond quickly to assist members?

• Implement existing benefit provisions within contract e.g. advance notice, health/COBRA, severance, supplemental unemployment, pension, workers comp, etc.
• Negotiate over additional benefits such as supplemental unemployment, training, and other services that can be integrated with the public resources available.
• Identify workers who are off due to occupational injury or illness and assure they receive proper notification of status, benefits and services.
• Identify outstanding issues surrounding workplace safety and health and obtain individual and plant wide exposure records.
• Seek early intervention services prior to layoff to recruit and enroll workers into benefits and services as soon as possible.
• Seek to create easy access to services, either on-site, near job sites or at union hall, to facilitate intake and enrollment activities.
• Demand union members receive public benefits in a timely manner and be sensitive to the concerns/needs of documented and undocumented immigrant workers
• Demand that all services are accessible to workers with disabilities, other special needs and in languages spoken by the workforce.
• Demand confidentiality of the information workers provide.

How can unions develop systems to promote program delivery? 

• Seek to create worker adjustment committee as soon as lay-off notices arrive and begin designing a displaced-worker.
• Seek to establish a peer advisor program to train union members to work with Rapid Response staff in helping laid-off union members enroll in local programs and services and in holding providers accountable for the provision of timely early intervention services. 
• Seek adequate funding (both negotiated and public) to provide a full array of services and benefits.
• Create a plan and procedure to ensure private-public cooperation so that workers have access to all the benefits and services that they are eligible for. 

How can local unions connect with labor-friendly advice on developing programs or finding the resources available through private and public systems?

• Contact your CLC and State Federation. A number of state federations operated dislocated worker programs.
• Contact the AFL-CIO Community Services staff representative in your area.  Your CLC can help you reach the one in your area.
• Contact the labor representatives on your state and local Workforce Investment Board. Your state federation and CLC can help direct you.
• Contact the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute Regional Coordinator.