Wanted to post this Op-Ed from the YDR 

We frequently don’t consider the unintended consequences when something happens that doesn’t have a face. If we do wonder about the people that the bad news will affect, we think, that is too bad or that is a shame, but we really don’t connect with the people and their lives. Well, let me share the details of how being furloughed from the unemployment offices will affect me and my family.

My name is Amy Jensen and I’m a member of SEIU 668. My husband, Jim, is a member of AFSCME.  We were both employed by PA Unemployment Compensation. As of the close of business Monday, Dec. 19, we became the victims by being furloughed due to the failure of the Senate Majority leadership, and especially Sen. Scott Wagner, when they failed to vote on HB 2375, which would have provided the $57.5 million shortfall needed to keep the 521 UC employees working.

Not only were we both furloughed, we don’t possess any bumping rights, so we’ll be filing for unemployment. How ironic that we have worked for a combined 15 years for Unemployment, helping thousands of out of work Pennsylvanians collect their unemployment payments and we’ll now need to file for benefits ourselves!

After 12 years of marriage, Jim and I bought our first house in September. We spent two years carefully searching for the perfect home, and now we’ll be forced to  fiigure out if we can keep it.

Our daughter is in her third year of college and excels in all her classes. Now, she may not have a home to return to, and the word “upsetting” can’t begin to describe how worried she must be over our job loss and the financial instability. We’ve always put her education first and worked hard to give her these opportunities without worrying about our financial problems. That safety net is now gone.

Without the pet restrictions when renting a home, we took the opportunity to adopt a crippled puppy to add to our household that already included another dog and a cat. If we’d have to return to renting, we will have a much harder time finding a landlord willing to allow us to keep all three animals. As they are part of our family, this will be a very difficult reality to overcome.

Both my husband and I are on multiple daily prescription medications. In addition, Jim takes a weekly injection which cost $6,000 per month. Without health insurance and a prescription plan, I don’t know how we’ll be able to afford them and maintain our health. 

Neither Jim nor I blame Secretary Kathy Manderino or Gov. Tom Wolf for our situation. Any problems L & I might have didn’t start during the Wolf administration or under Manderino. We feel she did the best she could under the circumstances. We place the blame squarely on the Republican senators who failed to let the UC funding come up for a vote before the legislative session closed.

Bringing the bill up for a vote was their job, regardless of whether it passed, and they failed to do it. If I were to have refused to do my job, I would have been harshly reprimanded at the least, and quite possibly fired. While the senators are enjoying no negative consequences with two months of paid vacation, and a raise, 521 furloughed employees are having to make major decisions about their lives and futures.

Aw, it must be nice to not have these worries especially over the holidays. All my life, I’ve been told that elected officials work for us, not the other way around. I guess Wagner and the others senators must’ve been absent during that civics lesson. Yeah, this sucks.

— Amy Jensen is a furloughed Employment Security Operations Examiner. She and her husband, Jim, who was also furloughed, live in Windsor.

Last edited by tennyson (12/23/2016 1:27 pm)