On Line Employment Insurance Application Useless

When you have applied and taken your ROE into the local EI office, make sure to get a photocopy of it from them and have them stamp the photocopy, give them 5 days to process it and then you can start phoning the online number to check the status of your claim. If there is a problem you want to phone them and get it dealt with ASAP. In my case they the online system said that they did not have my ROE, I phoned and the lady there checked the computer and found that they did have my ROE and rectified the problem and phoned me back within 2 hours to tell me when I would receive a cheque. A lot of the workers their have a heart so don't dump on them, instead explain the hardship you are undergoing and get them working on your side.

Thanks Milton, as in any other organization there are good and bad employees, it is the system that sucks however.
I have just had a long conversation with our claimant who just returned form the local office to see where our claim stood, it seems the local office, where you MUST attend in order to provide the ROI CANNOT even tell you where your claim stands. Our claimant was given the phone on a "direct line" and still had to wait abt 1/2 hr to get any answers (sorry its going to be another 2 or 3 weeks despite your having made a claim online 16 weeks ago) .
I do not blame the employees at all, but both the web masters (for failing to provide the necessary information re ROI) and the upper management (for failing to provide speedy access for clients at their local office) need to be taken to task.
The "hot line" is all but useless as if the queue is longer than 3min (and it always is) it hangs up and oft time when the queue is longer it will not even allow you to call!

There is a LOT of work needed here, one would almost think that the government is trying to discourage workers from applying?!

And that, "...it is the system that sucks..." is for goddamn sure.

They can come up with billions to drop into the laps of "business", "without strings attached", in no damned time at all. They will even hold special sessions of parliament and pass emergency legislation. But make it a simple and easy system for the working class to get the money he/she has likely been paying into UI for years, as well as paying the taxes that are bailing out hoser ruling class interests and investments, not a friggin' chance. Make them crawl naked over miles of broken glass, and then give them a pittance.

These guys, these corporate welfare recipients are, of course, all "individualists", so they shouldn't have to jump through hoops, we know that. Whereas you working class twits are all lazy slobs out to milk the "free market" system dry. You contribute squat to society. You are not but wage slaves.

C'mon, time for your working class folks to brighten up, put on your angry face, get in touch with your hate (which has its times of appropriateness too), your righteous wrath, and take the goddamn system on. Put the fear of The End of Their Ruling Time into the bastards. Rise up angry.

Announce it to the world. "I'VE HAD ALL THE SHIT I CAN TAKE FROM THESE SANCTIMONIOUS ASSHOLES, AND I AIN'T TAKING ANYMORE!!!"

They could be mailing your benefits to your home automatically, upon severance of your employment, just as easy as they are wiping the noses and asses of the ruling class Greed Pigs that got us all into this mess in the first place. But no, they want YOU to jump through all the hoops to get a starvation pittance at the end, as the best result you can expect anyway.

Time for you guys and gals to seek each other out, organize into groups, determine your collective interests and the appropriate ruling class system "targets", and go after the bastards. Like I say, put the fear of the Working Class Lord into them. Take over your plants, offices and other work sites, declare them the property of the people, and seek out and build common cause with other workers, consumers and community interests, and try to find the ways to put YOUR enterprises back to work in a way that includes you, and yet provides the rest of the community citizenry with what they need, be it food, housing, protection from creditors, transport, clothing and education etc. Get it on and get it happening without THEM. Create your own "liberated market" and "liberated work places." (AND DON'T FORGET TO CREATE YOUR OWN "SELF-DEFENCE" COMMITTEES AND "GROUPS", for when they will be needed.)

Ordinary folks are not going to move forward from here, or get anywhere playing nicey-nice and business as usual with these assholes and their "system"-, which includes all the "vanguard" politicos in Ottawa and the provincial capitals.

CREATE YOUR OWN SYSTEM. Step by step. Brick by brick. Block by block. Street by street. Co-operative group of workers and citizens by co-operative group.

They have only got you by the short hairs and backed into the corner cowering because you allow it. Stop enabling the assholes. Take control of your own lives, the streets, our workplace enterprises, and our communities.

This UI "jump through the hoops" crap everyone tolerates while the rich get bailed out is bullshit. Time for it to end.

Write letters, take to the streets, kick ass... do whatever is necessary. ORGANIZE.

Coyote

I think it is reasonable to assume that the offices of EI are all under mountains of new applications, and that they may be having trouble keeping up with demand.

And its entirely likely about to get much worse Islandcynic, if new economic reports coming out now are anywhere near correct.

And the blame here is NOT with EI workers. I want to be clear about that. They are just flunky cogs in "the system" wheel too, and have to work with what they are given. Unless, of course, as matters continue to deteriorate, the will and the way can be found by sufficient numbers of workers to no longer accept this "powerless" state of affairs.

And we do have to find ways of breaking out of this "legal" cage they keep us confined in... and organized "co-operation" is the key, along with a quiet refusal to be stopped. If covert organization is required, especially in the early going, until a power base has been built up, then that's what folks should do.

What should not be viewed as appropriate though, is a resigned, defeatist acceptance of the straight-jacket into which they, the system, place us, and attempt to keep us.

Resistance is NOT futile. (One only has to be careful... until there is sufficient mass. And that is the direction on which should be focus now, by the unemployed and everyone working under the axe... creating mass. Influence and power comes with that.)

The greatest likelihood is, that this collapse of the economic system is NOT going to end anytime soon, however much its apologists seek, apologizing overtime and constantly, to hold out hope for a quick turn-around. Not going to happen. Which says to me that the best way to speed the process along and create a "worker friendly" resolution of the situation is, like I say, creating a steady mobilization impetus and mass.

That alone, as the sycophantic minions of the system get wind of it, and they will, will have them pissing their pants. (Which is not to suggest that even that alone will be enough. It won't be, and in any case, should not be presumed.)


Coyote

The reformer economist John Maynard Keynes, who yet sought in the post WW2 period to put a human face on capitalism by helping create a kind of Western "State Capitalism", so loathed by todays most right wing apologists everywhere, once said "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”

The height of "individualist" naiveté.

Good comments coyoteman.

There is some good news however, at least the payments are backdated to when you first became eligable and will be recived about two weeks AFTER you put your ROI in their hands.
But the online instructions still suck!

You may wish to figure out just what the "Working Class Lord" wants to do in the absence of the big, bad capitalist, because you guys all seem to have different ideas about how it all should work. In fact, you differ vigourously enough to turn on each other once the "common enemy" has been defeated. Perhaps the time to stock up on ice picks is now, before the big rush.

Seriously, what kind of revolution is going to take place in a country that can't even agree on a single communist party?

Oh, I think that is something that will more evolve along the way, by folks, more than be blueprinted in advance by any particular "vanguard", or collection thereof. And, if we have to fight it out after you assholes are gone, we'll do that too.

What we are agreed upon already though is, get rid of capitalism, and after observing the old USSR and the creation of capitalism out of the old so-called People's Republic, and the failures of the concept of "state ownership", there is a wider agreement than you might suspect from your graveyard position, that "this system" needs to be replaced by a system of direct working class, local community and interest group ownership of at least the "major", formerly "corporate" enterprises within the economy. And you underestimate the capacity of folks, at your peril I would suggest, as things evolve out of the growing failure of capitalism here and now unwinding, to set aside differences that really only seemed important when there was next to a zero chance of actually transforming society and the economy beyond capitalism. The navel gazing "left" and popular movements are about to have their attention drawn outward and away from the minutia differences between themselves, and the now transparent failures of the "past" revolutions of others.

And out of the failure of the old "dictatorship of the proletariat" notions, which over emphasized the importance of "vanguards" and "the state" (which is not to say there is no role for "the state"), there is a new and growing understanding that enhancing "democracy", especially including the economy and who has the decisive power there, not diminishing democracy, is the answer, coming out of an "advanced capitalism" context, in the "Western" worlds/people experience of it anyway.

So I think, my "Individualist" chap, that you are but attempting to tilt at nutbar windmills that don't exist to very much relevance anymore, is the fact of the matter. Sharpen up your understanding of the "new" evolving realities within "western" capitalism, or don't keep trying to play out of your league here. Which is my suggestion to you anyway.

(Which yet isn't to deny, as at the birth of capitalism out of the European revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries, which finally, over a prolonged historical period, overwhelmed the aristocratic class of feudalism and established the rule of the merchant/industrial class, that there are not going to be differences for us too. Of course there will be. But as the capitalist class overcame their differences sufficiently in their revolutionary time, at least sufficient enough to establish a working consensus making it possible for them to eventually rule, and they warred amongst themselves no less, and still do-, so then can the working class and its "social transformers". It took a long time to unite the merchant class, as evolved into the modern capitalist class, too; and they were themselves much engaged in their own fratricidal conflicts.)

I would never think of underestimating the intelligence, determination, or ability of my enemy. And be you wise, you will not either. So don't attempt to talk down to us here, but eyeball to eyeball. In which case, we may actually have a more fruitful discussion, even if we never arrive at an agreement on the desired final outcome.

Coyote

In what sense would we "assholes" be "gone"? Sounds like we're back to the guillotines and gulags. Like in Cuba, the best way to ensure there is no dissent is to kill or imprison the dissenters.

Oh, and there is no single monolithic mass of humanity call "the working class". And not all members of that arbitary grouping of people would do better under socialism. In fact, I would argue that the majority would not do better in terms of standard of living and quality of life, even under the de-centralized kind of model you promote.



Sorry to burst your bubble comrade, but the dominant left faction in Canada is closer to the Soviet statist, authoritarian, central planning model than to the more liberatarian/anarchist type of socialism you seem to support. Hell, Robin Mathews would call you "American" for wanting to decentralize power like that.



Oh yes, I forgot about the magical transformation of human nature that will take place once capitalist incentives have been removed. We'll all be self-sacrificing altruists willing to box up our egos and work our asses off for the good of the collective. And all the disagreements and competitive rivalries will disappear and we'll sing folk songs in the public square, wearing our hemp garments as we relax after our four-hour workday.



If history is any indication, the rivalries will become more pronounced and in some cases violent as the stakes rise. Academic debates about how one would run the world become much more urgent once the opportunity to actually run the world presents itself.

In a way, it would be fun (from a distance anyway) to watch a group of socialists try to run the world. It would probably give them a new appreciation for the "assholes" they made "gone".



I guess the above pretty much renders your lecture on condescension below somewhat hypocritical. And I stand by my point that (with apologies to Monty Python) as long as the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front hate each other more than they do the Romans, nothing is going to change.



Try being a Western conservative debating a left-leaning Torontonian. Then you'll know what being talked down to is like.

Silly me, and here it appeared to me that was exactly what was going on.

Didn't know you were from the West though Indie.

I can't really make that claim anymore, as I've been living in Ontari-ari-ario for a few years now. It's funny how when I speak to left-wing Torontonians now (in person anyway), they just get angry at me. The head-patting condescension is gone.

I'm convinced that there are three officially sanctioned bigotries in Canada (at least among our political/academic elites) - those towards Western Canadians, rural Canadians, and the overtly Christian. I no longer belong to any of those three groups, but I find the double-standard inherent in politically correct identity politics disgusting.

It would be quite reasonable to argue though that the main political fault line in this country is no longer East-West, but urban versus suburban and rural. The left-wing central planner types have naturally embraced the "urban agenda", as politicians considered too left-wing for provincial or federal politics (think David Miller or Glen Murray) can easily be elected mayor of a big city. And the nature and power of cities lend themselves more to the control-freak nature of the authoritarian left than the more abstract levers of control offered by the other layers of government.

The urban left in Canada has two major goals.

The first is to destroy the provincial level of government in favour of "city-states" under the umbrella of a strong federal government. The provincial level of government is the most likely to produce right-wing governments, because some provinces have enough rural and suburban votes to occasionally overwhelm those in their urban centres. That can't happen federally because Metro Toronto can pretty much overwhelm all of rural and suburban Canada. Liberal immigration policy (starting with Trudeau) had as one of its (unspoken) objectives bulking up the urban vote to help accomplish that.

The second goal is to destroy the suburb, pulling suburban residents from their homes with yards in safe neighbourhoods into high-rise condos in metro areas with everyone forced to abandon their cars for bicycles and public transit. This is classic top-down social engineering intended to aggressively stir together all the socioeconomic layers. The dream of the urban Canadian leftist is to have the poor and rich as next-door neighbours, until wealth redistribution finishes the job of evening them out.

Well, just so we're clear Indie, I'm not from Toronto, or anywhere in "central Canada" for that matter, nor have I ever even remotely been "academic", but solidly lower to mid level working class my entire working life (truck driver/heavy equipment operator and/or agricultural hand). Indeed, I'm a fellow whose wife and children have all done their time in the trenches, as waitresses. Not a university trained one amongst the entire lot of us. We could never afford it-, and by the time we could, it was too late, nor did we really give a rat's ass.

Not that academics aren't a part of the "working class", mind. Some of them just don't know it, and carry around their "indispensability to the ruling class" illusions. Others know pretty damned well which side of the class divide they are actually on... and the working class lord bless them for it.

And we are in a time, which you nutbar goofs created with your "we rule the free market" economic ideology, shag everyone else view of the world, where we have precious little time for your bullshit any longer. We and history are getting ready to make another run at trying to move society beyond you. (Thanks for the new opportunity, by the way.)

I do have a brain though-, certainly as good as yours.

Coyote

Well guys I hope you are enjoying you “philosophical” discussion, from my point of view it matters little who hold the reigns of power, the capitalists, the socialists, the right, the left or whom ever. The point is that none of these “ideologies” need be totality exclusive, for each has its good and bad points and ideas, only if there is a recognition that both in our political system and our social order we need compromise and cooperation will thing improve. Whilst both sides are so busy attacking the other point of view rather than trying to find common ground and fix the problems the results will be much the same no matter who “wins”.
This post was originally put up to make those trying to claim EI aware of a few wrinkles and although now way off topic it has kept it near the top of the list longer so carry on debating guys!

For those newly laid off part-timers here is another wrinkle you may not be aware off. Do not expect to get the same number of weeks of benefits as your full time colleagues! Whilst you will get the same 60% or so of your average (lower than full time) wage you will also be penalized by receiving anywhere from 10 to 20 weeks less benefits.
This is based upon the number of hours worked in the last year and means that a part time worker will receive considerably less, percentage wise, of their annual salary.

I’m no socialist but when even part timers have paid in to the system for years, should they not get the same percentage maximum benefits in comparison to their previous annual salary as those who were fortunate enough to have a full time job?
Details here - http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/ ... p-off.html

Wont matter much anyway, give it a year (or less) and 20% to 40% will all be on social assistance anyway. I just wonder who is going to pay for it, I know it wont be the bankers, the multinational corporations, the stockbrokers or any of the scheming crooks that got us here!
There, family members still out of work but I’m feeling better after that rant. Strapping down for the long haul in rural Canada.

PS. Anyone that thinks the rural population has any meaningful input into our governance (apart from local councils) is dreaming in Technicolor, we are the forgotten minority!