MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Here’s a heads up for Tennesseans who may have lost a job to foreign competition: The state is offering an array of services to workers displaced by foreign imports.
Workers laid off through no fault of their own may be eligible for job training, job search help, relocation allowances, and perhaps even special unemployment benefits.
Robin Wright with the Tennessee Department of Labor says workers displaced years ago due to foreign imports, might still be eligible for assistance.
“If they want training, or job search assistance, or relocation assistance, and they have never used it before, it doesn’t matter when their petition was filed. If it was filed in January of 1975, they could come in today and say I want to request trade services.”
Wright says if a company wants to explore filing a trade adjustment petition, the state has a rapid response team ready to help. She says one of the best recent examples of how the program can help is assistance provided to thousands of workers laid off by Goodyear in Union City in 2011.
“Most of them have completed, or in the process of completing their job training. We had quite a few that were moved out of the state into other jobs.”
Wright says that in 2014 the state provided more than 1400 Tennesseans with special services using the import displacement funds.
If you’d like to learn more, contact Robin Wright at (615) 253-6668 or e-mail robin.v.wright@tn.gov.