Fair / 27° FFormer Tyler employee critical of United Way fund for laid-off workers
Published 12:05pm Friday, February 12, 2010Dear editor:
To everyone who donates to organizations:
About seven months ago I was let go from Tyler Refrigeration due to the selling of the plant. In the last month Tyler and Hill Phoenix, the company that bought out Tyler, donated money to give to Tyler employees who were hurt by the closing of the shop. Well, they picked United Way of Niles to disperse the money. The Niles office had to call in Southwest United Way to help them.
When I called in the first thing they said was they did not expect that many people to call for help. What did they think was going to happen? The way United Way dispersed the money really in my opinion was not fair. United Way had a board of directors that came up with various ideas how to disperse the money.
We all worked at Tyler and it should have been fairer. Numerous people I talked to got their home heating tanks filled with oil $200 to $300 apiece. I have no oil tank; I got nothing. They purchased new glasses for people at Tyler; I got none. I purchased my glasses in August 2009, took United Way the receipts, which they asked for; I still got no refunded price. They said it wasn’t their policy to refund money. I waited two weeks and got that answer by then the money was gone. If that was their policy why didn’t they tell me that up front; I would have just gotten new glasses. Some of my co-workers from Tyler got a set of glasses for themselves and their wives. I got none.
By the time I was informed of their stance on the refund policy the money was gone and the program shut down. United Way overall is a good organization but the Niles area has got their problems. I would like to know how much United Way got to keep of the money for dispersing it. Who sits on these decision boards?
Some of my co-workers got close to $1,000 in material items; I got none. The only thing I received were three $25 Wal-Mart cards to use on food. The next time you think about donating money, think twice about the United Way.
If you see a truck around with writing in the back window about dissatisfaction with United Way, it’s me. I already know United Way will spin the story different and say I was the one at fault.
Take care.
Chuck Rodgers
Niles
While United Way is a great organization, they take anywhere from 8% or more of the donations for administrative costs. I’d rather write a check directly to the organization that I want to support. I’ve also had instances in my organization where someone donated to us thru UW only to find the check had gone elsewhere.
Just to let everyone know when I called the United Way office hear in Niles about my refund comming that is when they informed me of there no cash refund policy then why did they ask for my receipts??Also I was accused of leaving scathing voicemails to the united way from the begining which I did not. I was the very first person that united way talked to from Tylers and if I had left scathing voicemails why did not they bring that up. The lady I talked to that was in charge of dispursing the money gave me her buisness card with her personell cell phone number and said if I had any question I was to call her. Kind of strange if I was leaving nasty voicemails why would she give me her personal cell # which I still have to prove my story.. I just want people to know this is not in anyway Tylers fault they were nice enough to give us the money. I blame United Way in the way they dispursed the money. I think we should know how much money was there and who sits on these boards and are they working. My meaning when your working sometimes you forget about how it is for people who are not working.. Again kudos to the Niles Daily Star for publishing my entire letter to the editor without changing a thing in my letter. Any questions call me at my house my numbers in the phone book. Chuck Rodgers
I too am extremely disappointed by the way that this money for Tyler employee’s was handled.
I was not an employee but a family member was. He repeatedly called and left messages with the United Way that were never returned. If the money was for Tyler’s employees then why was it not divided equally between all the employees. And why weren’t they notified. An ad in the paper does not count as notifying people. Most of all, why did no one take the time to pick up the phone and return his call?
I will not be donating to United Way again, I too will choose who to send my money to and send it directly.