DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - Decatur Public Schools has reached out to WAND News to comment on the life insurance cancellation letters received by members of the DFTA Union.

Chief Communications Officer Denise Swarthout says teaching assistants are getting these letters due to the nature of the U.S. Postal Service. She shares the letters were sent out at the beginning of the teaching assistant strike, since the employees were not working.

Similar to the rules for health insurance, employees weren't working enough hours to contribute to life insurance benefits. As health insurance benefits were re-instated once employees returned to work, so were life insurance benefits. She says there was simply a lag in the time employees received the cancellation letters. Swarthout says life insurance policies are active.

Swarthout adds that teams are working this weekend to ensure that all health insurance re-activation requests are filed by the end of the day Sunday.

ORIGINAL STORY:

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - The struggle between the Decatur Federation of Teaching Assistants and the Decatur School Board continues this weekend.

DFTA’s President issued a new statement this weekend pointing out more benefits cut from teaching assistants.

To recap, teaching assistants went back to the classroom Friday, without a contract, after three days of going on strike. Then, teaching assistants discovered their health insurance was dropped.

Decatur Public Schools put out a timeline of events detailing that once the TA’s went back to work, their health insurance benefits were reinstated. 

Fast forward now to this weekend, where a new statement has been issued by DFTA President, Paula Busboom. In it, she reveals union members are getting letters that their life insurance is being cancelled.

She says in part, "This is just one more thing in a string of cruelties that the district is imposing. They are playing games with people's lives instead of coming to the table to discuss this constructively as adults." We'll share the full statement below.

WAND News has reached out to Decatur Public Schools for a response to this new development. We’ll provide updates on air and online as we learn more.

Busboom's full statement:

“The Board of Education is now depriving our 275 members of their own access to life insurance, a benefit they’ve earned as employees of the district. First they threatened our access to affordable healthcare in bargaining, and yesterday they physically took it away even though we returned to work without a contract. Now, our members are receiving letters that their life insurance is being cancelled. This is just one more thing in a string of cruelties that the district is imposing. They are playing games with people’s lives instead of coming to the table to discuss this constructively as adults. I worry for our teaching assistants and for our district as a whole. I worry what they will try to take away next. But mostly, I worry about the example that this Board of Education is setting for our students.”