I'll try to make a long complicated story short here.
I work for the State of Maine Department of Labor at the Presque Isle CareerCenter. One of the programs I work with is the Trade Adjustment Act (TAA), which is for workers who have lost their jobs due to foreign competition (i.e. their jobs get shipped overseas).
We have a director for TAA here in the State, but she recently left the post to go to work in Washington state, and there is another lady who is filling in in the interim until the position can be officially posted and filled. That lady is on vacation this week.
Well, I had a question about the federal regulations for TAA (which is a federal program) that I couldn't get settled at the State level, so I decided to contact the USDOL. I looked up TAA on the Web, got the URL for Dept. of Labor's Employment & Training division specific to TAA and there was an address in Washington DC and a phone number.
SO I called the number and got some guy named Victor, who was very nice and this is all well and good. I told him that I work for the state of Maine DOL at the Presque Isle CareerCenter, that I work with the Trade Act, and that I have a client with some issues that I couldn't get straightened out at the State level.
So what does this guy do?? He gets my ZIP code, and REFERS ME TO MY LOCAL ONE-STOP CAREERCENTER!! I TOLD him I WORK THERE, and then he proceeds to GIVE ME THE ADDRESS, which it turns out is an old address from over FIVE YEARS AGO!!! THEN he gives me the phone number, and tells me to call between 8 and 5, Monday through Friday!!
I told him he had better update his database because he had the wrong address in there! THEN he gives me the name of the Trade Act coordinator, WHO I HAD ALREADY TOLD HIM HAD LEFT THE POSITION, and THEN he refers me to the SAME DAMN WEB SITE for more information that I had ALREADY TOLD HIM I HAD GOTTEN HIS NUMBER FROM!!!
THEN he asked if there was anything more he could do for me, and I was trying not to laugh right in his ear by then, tears rolling down my face, and I just said, "No, thank you!"
FFS! What does it say about this nation when the VERY PROGRAM designed to help workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas has a helpline THAT HAS BEEN SENT OVERSEAS???
And this guy CLEARLY didn't understand half of what I was saying to him, and the information he was giving out was WRONG, and he STILL didn't get it right when I corrected him!
I DO believe a letter to our state labor commissioner is in order here!
-PurpleLisa
