- To
head off possible violence
- Sunnyside
Job Service hires guards
- SUNNYSIDE (Wednesday 11-17-99)---The Eastern
Washington Job Service says jobless folks seeking
unemployment insurance dollars have overloaded the
state's new Tele-Center system on this side of the
Cascades. That slows things down and people get
mad.
-
- So the state fell back on old methods of
taking unemployment claims on Nov. 8. Problem is,
many state staff who used to take Sunnyside claims
have been terminated or transferred. That put a
brake on claim procedures even more.
-
- That has led the state to hire--for the
first time--Sunnyside
security guards to "keep in check" those who may
get angry and rowdy at the time it takes to make
their claims and get their money.
-
- One Sunnyside insider, who needs to remain
nameless, said, " On November 8, this agency
stopped all unemployment-claim activity and
switched to Tele-Centers. As you can probably
guess, this was the worst time of the year to try
something of this magnitude in Eastern Washington."
-
- "As of the 16th there's a new plan. Since
people were waiting hours to get hold of the
Tele-Center to file their unemployment claim--and
some still couldn't get in--the new plan is to
start taking new claims at the local offices again.
-
- "Unfortunately, most of the staff at these
offices have been laid off or transferred, so this
is a real nice mess. They have added security
people to most of the offices due to the threats of
violence that have been made," the source
said.
-
- The YVN talked to one of the Sunnyside
security guards from Century Security in Union
Gap.
-
- "Sherry" said, "Basically we just walk
around and keep things calm, cool, and collected.
We watch the parking lot and watch people. So far,
we have encountered no problems."
-
- "We try to maintain (any situations that
spring up) ourselves. We try to calm (the
distraught person) down. If that doesn't work, we
call for backup--usually our guys at Century. If it
gets completely out of control we call the local
PD," she said.
-
- Mark Mochel, Regional JSC chief in Yakima,
said hiring Century Security guards has been
commonplace in the Yakima office "for years." But
it's a first for the Sunnyside Job Service
Center.
-
- "We have two issues in Eastern Washington.
One, layoffs for seasonal workers has taken place
two to three weeks earlier than normal. Two, the
volume of persons who try to access the Tele-Center
has overloaded the system in this part of the
state," Mochel said.
-
- He said that, in Seattle beginning in
February, and in Pierce County beginning in June,
the Tele-Center has worked fine for claimants
calling in by phone. Not so in Eastern Washington,
where there's an annual spike in claimant numbers
following harvests.
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