Spring, 1998, Vol. 4, No. 2

POINT

Workfare Recipients: It's Time to Unionize

By Graig Meyer

The proponents of "Workfare" programs bill them as the first step on the way to independence from welfare. But in reality, workfare participants have become the serfs of a new feudalism. They are forced to work in menial jobs that provide scanty wages, no benefits and few rights. Employers receive tax breaks for hiring workfare participants, pay almost nothing for their services and use them to replace jobs previously filled by the working poor or by unionized employees. It is time for unions to organize workfare participants in a fight for the rights of all workers.

The problems of workfare participants read off like a list of target issues for unions. Participants receive little real compensation, working for their welfare benefits rather than for pay. They are provided no sick days or vacation days, and they can be dropped from the program if they take time off for any reason. Employers are not required to provide them with Social Security, retirement, unemployment or workers compensation benefits. Workfare particpants do not receive basic occupational health and safety assurances; have no grievance procedures for complaints against employers. and are often assigned to menial tasks which provide little training for real jobs.

The program hurts both tax payers and participants. Since the businesses who hire workfare employees are given tax breaks and the participants' benefits are paid for by the state, employers end up paying only pennies per hour for these workers. Therefore, tax payers are being doubly charged for this program: once for the tax breaks and once for the benefits. Second, the program provides incentive for employers to keep participants in workfare rather than offer them permanent jobs. Why should employers offer participants full positions when the labor is so cheap?

Why should employers keep them on as full employees when their time in the program is up when they can hire another program participant? It should be no surprise that in New York City, less than 10% of the city's workfare participants have been able to move into real jobs during the programs first two years. Why should all of this matter to unions? There is no way that forcing an estimated one million low-wage workers into the workforce over the next two years will not cause a decrease in wages and weaken the power of unions. Furthermore, these workers often replace other low-wage or unionized workers, which employers may wish to get rid of because of their relatively higher wages.

Perhaps most importantly, workfare participants are looking for some form of representation. In a recent election in New York City, 16,989 workfare participants voted to designate the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) as their collective representative. Only 207 voted against the agreement. Local chapters of ACORN and Jobs with Justice around the country are successfully acting to organize workfare participants in other areas.

The facts are clear: work-fare participants are being forced to work without their due compensation, benefits, legal rights and hope for advancement. At the same time, workfare programs are costing other workers their jobs while subsidizing their employers. Now is the time for workfare participants, community activists and unions to join in organizing to fight for the rights of all workers.

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