-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------"Stop slavery, we needs real jobs"
Interview with Workfairness leaders
By Judi Cheng in New York
If you find yourself walking through a public park, you might stop to notice workers, many of them, picking up garbage, raking leaves, clearing paths or even shoveling snow. They may appear to be New York City Parks Department workers, but they're not.
If you happen to be in a hospital, you'll also see lots of workers in new uniforms behind the desks, delivering supplies, disposing hospital garbage. They may appear to be hospital administrators or maintenance staff, but they're not.
Your child in public school may see new faces in the lunch room kitchen serving food and cleaning up the dining halls and bathroom stalls. They look like school service employees, but they're not.
How did Times Square get cleaned up so quickly New Years Day? Hundreds of workfare workers joined Department of Sanitation workers to pick up after the millions who filled the streets on New Year's Eve.
There are over 40,000 workfare workers in New York City alone. And they are quickly filling up positions in all sectors of society. They are Work Experience Program workers-welfare recipients who are being forced to work without pay.
Enslaving the impoverished poor
WEP is a program designed to enslave the already impoverished poor. It forces those who have relied on the welfare program to take almost full- time jobs without pay or benefits, just to keep what little they were already receiving from public assistance programs like welfare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and Home Relief.
Those social service programs are being gutted, and replaced with a new program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which is a block grant that provides less assistance than AFDC or Home Relief. It will cut $55 million from low-income programs over the next six years.
WEP workers are forced to take work assignments in every sector of society: municipal jobs, social service jobs, public parks and recreation, and even in the private sector. They get no more compensation than the welfare checks they're already receiving, and no medical benefits or child care for children at home.
The proposal does not guarantee even the minimum wage, nor are workfare workers protected by labor laws.
Fighting for fairness in workfare
In response to this attack, workfare workers have begun to organize a group called Workfairness. Those who took the initiative are getting other workfare workers to sign authorization cards to have Workfairness represent them.
They're also talking with other groups organizing WEP workers toward a common strategy. Interest in organizing around this issue is growing, and more WEP workers are joining in the struggle.
With 1,600 members now, Workfairness is demanding a real wage for WEP workers, benefits, child care, union representation, and legitimacy as workers.
Workers World spoke to Vondora Jordan and William Mason, two workfare workers who are organizing other welfare recipients into Workfairness despite their own daily struggle.
At 6 a.m. Jordan is up to feed her two children, take her daughter to school and drop off her son with a friend or family member. She then takes the subway to her workfare assignment where she works the rest of the day. The work varies from typing and filing, to training other workers on the computer.
"I'm doing everything an average woman worker is doing. I'm even doing a lot of the boss's work, but the difference is, I'm not getting paid," says Jordan. "I'm being asked to train other workers on the job who were hired long before I was given the assignment. Not bad for someone who's supposed to be lazy, and feeding off the system."
Jordan is faced with criticism and threats when she says she needs to leave to pick up her daughter from school. After completing her WEP assignment for the day, there's still another half-day of work any working mother must do at home.
By the children's bedtime, she's exhausted, but the next day is more of the same.
"There are lots of young people on welfare, trying to get an education, but high school and college students receiving public assistance are being forced to fulfill WEP assignments during the school day," said Jordan.
"Penalties for not fulfilling a workfare assignment are harsh, especially against immigrants," said Jordan.
Pataki's harsh proposal
According to New York Gov. George Pataki's proposal for welfare recipients, those on welfare today will have their eligibility revoked after five years. Twenty-five percent of welfare recipients will be forced to work under the new proposal by September 1997. This will increase to 50 percent by the year 2002.
Food stamp recipients will be forced to work 33 months out of any 36-month period, regardless of obstacles.
Fingerprinting will be forced on all welfare recipients.
William Mason is a WEP worker who was given an assignment at the Office of Employment Services, where welfare recipients must report to receive their workfare assignments. Mason answers the telephones, gives information, answers questions, and explains regulations to hundreds of new WEP workers about their assignments each day.
The paid workers in the building are reluctant to train the workfare workers. "They're afraid of losing their jobs. Already, there are 38 WEP workers working in the building," says Mason.
"The workers are being pitted against one another. The Workfare program is designed to weaken unions, and eliminate high-paying jobs."
WEP workers fight back
On his coffee break, Mason hands out Workfairness leaf lets and encourages WEP workers to fight back against these vicious attacks.
On Nov. 14, Workfairness organized a rally in front of the OES building where Mason reports to his WEP assignment 21 hours a week. Hundreds of WEP workers attended.
"As a WEP worker, you can't afford to be sick. If you don't have a doctor's note to prove that you've been sick, they threaten to take your welfare benefits away," said Mason, who usually receives a $34 welfare check each week. No extra compensation is paid for the 21-hour weeks put in at OES.
"After the vouchers are used for food and rent, there's no cash left over to buy personal things like soap, winter boots, or a coat. When I needed to take a part-time job to supplement my welfare check, I had my benefits taken away.
"Stop the slavery! Stop the dictatorship! We need more education, and jobs, not to be put on a ship sailing to nowhere," said Mason.
An attack on union labor
Even private businesses are replacing their laid-off workers with unpaid WEP workers. The city and state governments are now making these WEP workers available to fill positions in private corporations that were once high-paid. Workfare is designed to replace protected union jobs with tens of thousands of unpaid WEP workers. It's a strategy to weaken unions, and give more power to the bosses. For the first time, WEP workers must present their resum‚s to prospective employers.
"Slavery is not just something that Black people once went through," added Mason. "Today, it includes all of us. We are the people, and we can unite, if we organize. We'll show what will happen to the system if we don't show up for our assignments. We do have rights.
"Not doing anything under these attacks is like committing suicide. It's time to put our fears behind us."
Workfairness is working towards gaining support from union leaders. "The unions need to take more responsibility," said Jordan. "They started off very small, and now they have million-dollar budgets.
"We had doubts about organizing the WEP workers at first, when it was just an idea between five or six people. But then the meetings grew to 25, and then 50 people. And when hundreds of WEP workers came to speak out at the rally on Nov. 4, we knew the potential for success was there.
"The unions need to support our struggle. At first, the unionists were under attack, just like the WEP workers are today. But they stayed strong, and built strong unions."
While the Giuliani administration is cutting $200 million from welfare, the city government is giving $350 million in tax breaks alone to seven of the richest corporations, including the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Workfairness organization is preparing for a press conference on the steps of City Hall on Martin Luther King's birthday, Jan. 15, at 4 p.m. The group invites all those who are interested to attend.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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