OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Self-employed Oklahomans that participated in Monday’s protest for how the state has handled unemployment claims are finally seeing results.
“You can say ‘oh it shouldn’t have come to that,’ but at least he did something,” Protest organizer Monica Marsh told News 4. “He did it while we were there.”
The protest started with chants, but ended with Secretary of Digital Transformation David Ostrowe, and three OESC agents, promising protesters they would help figure out what was holding up their claims.
“I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they did get the help,” Marsh said. “Some got their whole issues resolved. We got a call form one of the agents last night, and he said he’s follow up with us today.”
Ostrowe says, to his knowledge, everyone at the protest that was there to provide their information has had their claim resolved, or they are actively working to get them fixed.
“Some of them had wrong social security numbers, some them clearly weren’t qualified,” Ostrowe said. “They said ‘thank you, thank you for telling me I’m not qualified so I don’t need to call back.’”
Ostrowe hopes some of the issues are now in the past.
Tuesday morning, the OESC board voted to consolidate with the Office of Management and Enterprise services.
Something he says will be beneficial for everyone.
“OMES has more resources than OESC. They have more sophisticated processes they are learning from other agencies,” Ostrowe said. “It’s probably where that technology should have resided in the first place.”
As for Monica, she plan to continue using her voice to help fight for others.
“There are still many people out there that need help,” said Monica.
