The Oregon AFL-CIO has a new staffperson to help laid-off workers get benefits they’re entitled to.
Allen Brennan — who was himself laid off from a pulp mill in Camas, Washington — springs into action whenever local union employers announce mass layoffs. Beyond unemployment insurance, laid off workers are entitled to dislocated worker assistance if their skills aren’t in demand, and even more generous benefits if offshoring or foreign competition contributed to their job loss. The benefits can include career counseling, trade school tuition, relocation assistance, and extended unemployment benefits that allow the recipient to attend school while collecting unemployment.
In 2007, Brennan was laid off from his job as an electrical equipment operator at the Camas pulp and paper mill now owned by Georgia-Pacific. Then vice president of Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) Local 5, he went to work as a peer advocate helping his fellow laid-off union members with paperwork to apply for benefits. When that was done, he attended college classes at Clark Community College and Washington State University, and went to work helping unemployed workers as a case manager at Vancouver Worksource.
The Oregon AFL-CIO position is funded through the federal Workforce Investment Act. Brannan began March 6 and replaces Mark Warne, who left to work on a union pre-apprenticeship program for state prison inmates.
Sadly, he’ll be keeping busy this summer. Umatilla Chemical Depot, which is winding down a multi-year decommissioning project, laid off 136 union members June 26. CenturyLink is closing its Hood River call center Aug. 2 and laying off 51 union members. And Georgia-Pacific expects to lay off 100 workers starting Aug. 2 at its paper mill in Halsey, Oregon.
