PLEASE NOTE: (Posted 5/13/20)
THE MSG RELIEF FUND HAS STOPPED TAKING APPLICATIONS
Priority List January - March
This week, President Sal LoCascio, Vice President Kevin Smith, Treasurer Carlo Foti, and Business Agent Rudy Marinacci have been participating in teleconference’s that have involved the New York City Central Labor Council, Governor Cuomo’s office, and Mayor de Blasio’s office. As this is a totally unique crisis, many questions have not been answered, and the answers to many questions have been changed and/or updated on a daily, sometimes hourly basis !!!
President LoCascio, Vice President Smith, and Business Agent Marinacci want to thank MSG Ticket Taker Shop Steward Rose Hussey for stepping up to assist our members who work MSG with “pay claims” for the past week. The tireless work Rose has been doing for all of our MSG personnel is priceless. Many of our Local 176 members who work Madison Square Garden (MSG) have a decision to make, regarding whether to participate in MSG’s financial relief program that was released from Sandy Kapell’s office.
MSG has developed a program to pay Ushers and Ticket Takers their average salary based on their past 6 months earnings, provided you averaged a minimum of 20 hours per week. If you qualify for this financial relief, it will be considered earned wages. The individual will have to decide what is best for themselves. If you do not work any other job, compare what your Unemployment Insurance rate is to what you will receive from MSG. What must also be considered is how this will impact your unemployment benefits for next year. At this time, the federal government is proposing legislation to grant a 13 week extension to the current benefits, to be approved on a state by state basis. If New York State qualifies, and your original 26 weeks of benefits expires, you will not have to fill out any additional paperwork to receive the 13 week extension. Some of our members who would qualify for this relief may have had their primary source of income also halted. If so, they may be better suited opting out of the MSG relief and going solely on unemployment. If you wish to opt out of MSG’s relief you can call (212) 465-6255 or email StaffServicesTeam@msg.com. Business Agent Marinacci is available to discuss possible options with anyone who would like. Reach out to him with your questions.
If you are in the Availability Pool, and in the past 6 months worked less than an average of 20 hours per week, you will probably not qualify for MSG’s pro-rated pay, unless you spent a significant amount of time on the Priority List. At this time, MSG is developing an additional relief fund, to offer some type of benefit to all. On each of the teleconferences we have participated in, we have asked the same question, with no answers yet, “We are a part-time, per diem union. Many of our members do this as secondary income to support our families; many need the supplemental income just to pay rent and purchased food. Are there any plans to provide additional relief for these families?” So far, each official has recommended applying to Access HRA. This is the link…
https://a069-access.nyc.gov/accesshra/login
LOCAL 176
Licensed Ushers and
Ticket Takers
"Unity is Strength"
Shop Steward (Ushers): Sal Amico 201-306-4393 salvatoreamico40@yahoo.com
Assistant: Kami Lall 646-842-2090 kamanilall@yahoo.com
Shop Steward (TT's): Rose Hussey 516-551-5567 rohussey@aol.com
Assistant: John Gilmore