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One State at a Time
The author and her colleagues are working to improve access to unemployment benefits for contingent faculty in their home state of Illinois. With grant support from the National Education Association, their parent union, they trained leaders of higher education union locals to host unemployment filing parties on their campuses. At the conclusion of the spring 2008 semester, they had three filing parties, and they will continue to host them at the end of each semester.
They are also working through the legislature. By tracking the disposition of claims, they are collecting information that they hope will persuade legislators to consider changing the “reasonable assurance” language in the law so that contingent academics routinely win their unemployment benefit. With backing from the Illinois Education Association (IEA) and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, a resolution to develop a task force to study unemployment benefits as they relate to contingent academics passed the Illinois state senate. The Illinois house will consider the resolution this fall.
Finally, the author and her colleagues have gathered resources to help claimants who file in Illinois. See www.chicagococal.org for a list of “frequently asked questions” compiled by Joe Berry of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Frank Brooks of Roosevelt University and a tip sheet for preparing for appeal hearings from the IEA legal department. Because filing procedures in different states can be similar, these may also be helpful for those living outside Illinois.
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