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By John Maszinski, a second-year SSA student with a concentration in administration. His field placement is at David M. Griffith & Associates. Organizing workfare participants into a union is being offered as a way to ensure fair working conditions and compensation for those who are forced into the program. While organizing participants may seem like a good idea, it may not be the solution that will best help those participating in workfare. Currently the battle over the unionization of workfare participants is taking place in New York City. New York's Workfare Program has been a hot source of debate among local organized labor leaders since the concept of workfare was first introduced several years ago. Prior to its implementation, organized labor was against workfare and viewed its participants as a threat to union member's jobs. A primary concern was that workfare participants would replace regular unionized workers at a lower cost to the city, the major provider of workfare jobs. After the implementation of the program, organized labor switched its stance and chose to support the formation of a workfare union. This was done to protect labor membership's interests as well as ensure better working conditions for those participating in the workfare program. Last October, 17,000 of New York City's 38,000 workfare participants participated in a nonbinding election to form a union. Since the election was nonbinding, the city does not formally have to recognize the results of election. If the election were binding it is likely that litigation between the city and the new union would have resulted. The main issue of dispute would be whether workfare participants have the legal ability to organize and seek collective bargaining under the same labor laws that protect most workers. The city and state of New York do not believe that workfare participants are entitled to the same protections as other workers, and it seems that precedent is on their side. Nearly two decades ago, New York's Office of Collective Bargaining issued a series of decisions maintaining that "welfare recipients in job programs are not employees" (Greenhouse). It is unlikely that the state legislature will take any actions to overturn these rulings, since most legislatures are favorable to the current terms of the workfare program. So as long as New York's workfare program is viewed as a transitional program, its participants will never be able organize a recognized union. If workfare participants cannot legally organize a union, more viable alternatives need to be explored. The primary groups seeking to organize the workfare participants in New York are the local District Council 37 and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). These groups are seeking unionization as a means to higher wages, normal grievance procedures, benefits and permanent jobs. While these goals are worthwhile, there are other means by which they can be achieved. Perhaps efforts should be switched to pushing for job creation and job training. Over the last four years, the city of New York has been averaging 2,200 new jobs created per year. At this rate it will take approximately 16 years to create enough jobs for every adult on welfare in New York City (CNN 5/6/97). This lack of jobs should be the focus for those trying to improve conditions for workfare participants in New York. Even if a union were legally recognized for workfare participants, if there are no jobs to be filled what good is the union. REFERENCES
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Spring, 1998, Vol. 4, No. 2-
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