When employers find that they must rightsize their businesses, PA CareerLink Lehigh Valley is there to help. In coordination and cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Rapid Response Unit, a Lehigh Valley Rapid Response team is organized and offers outreach and a full range of information, networking, and employment and training assistance to workers being dislocated. This team is networked in the community and includes organizations that are funded to assist dislocated workers, along with community, government, educational, and private sector partners. The Rapid Response Team reacts within 48 hours. For additional information, call 610-437-5627, extension 450.

Members of the local team include representatives from:

• Pennsylvania Labor and Industry Rapid Response Unit
• Pennsylvania CareerLink Lehigh Valley
• Allentown Unemployment Compensation Service Center
• United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley
• Consumer Credit Counseling Service
• Educational Opportunity Center
• Lehigh Carbon Community College
• Northampton Community College
• Capital Blue Cross

CareerLink Lehigh Valley can also provide technical assistance in negotiating through the regulations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Trade Reform Act of 2002 and on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).