UUPers are urged to take an online survey about the possibility that they are paid less based on their race or ethnicity.

The UUP Task Force on Pay Equity Based on Race hopes the online survey—found at www.uupinfo.org—will provide them with enough data to see if such a situation exists at SUNY.

According to task force member Charles Callahan III of Brockport, the project’s principal investigator, it is critical that as many members as possible answer the survey to create a data pool large enough to allow it to begin testing to see if inequalities exist.

“We’re hoping people are willing to provide this crucial information so we can make reasonable inferences about the data we collect,” he said.

Task force Chair Charles Hines of Stony Brook HSC said that personal information submitted in the survey is confidential and will be left out of the final report.

Federal benefits: Payments go electronic —The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently announced that people applying for federal benefits on or after May 1 must choose an electronic payment method when they apply. Anyone currently receiving paper checks must switch by March 1, 2013.

Those already receiving benefit payments electronically will continue to receive their payments as usual on their payment dates.

More information is available online at www.godirect.org or by calling (800) 333- 1795.

Help sought for storm victims—The Jefferson County American Federation of Teachers is looking for gift cards for clothing and essentials to help Alabama AFTers recover from the violent storms that ravaged Southern states April 27.

Needed items include flashlights, batteries, radios, wet wipes, diapers, baby food, children’s underwear, hand sanitizer and garbage bags.

Mail donations or gift cards, or order items online and have them shipped, to: JCAFT, c/o Vi Parramore, 1900 20th Ave. South, Birmingham, AL 35209.

State pensions are underfunded —A new report on state pensions from the Pew Center on the States offers some lessons for dealing with the aftermath of the financial collapse.

The report, “The Widening Gap: The Great Recession’s Impact on State Pension and Retiree Health Care Costs,” found that, in all, state pension systems in 2009 were slightly less than 78 percent funded—declining six percentage points from the 2008 level of 84 percent.

“The good news in the Pew report is that … the plans showed resilience and an ability to weather the massive financial downturn,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said.

The AFT Executive Council will review a new report from the union’s Ad Hoc Committee on Revenues and Retirement Security that focuses on long- term solutions to ensure retirement security for all, based on reality, not on misconceptions about workers’ pensions.

The report can be found at http://bit.ly/k7LL8O.