Protest hits dangerous welfare office conditions

WW photos: Joseph Piette

A group of caseworkers, recipients, union activists and their supporters from Occupy Philly marched into the North Philadelphia welfare offices on Dec. 21 to demand better conditions.

Layoffs of welfare caseworkers have reduced the assistance available to those in need, while increasing the burden on existing staff. In an atmosphere akin to a pressure cooker, people are forced to wait in long lines for hours on end. To make matters worse, 150,000 Pennsylvania residents — including 43,000 children — have recently been denied Medicaid, and the closing of Employment Advancement Retention Network centers has left welfare recipients without help to find employment.

Ray Martinez, Service Employees Local 668 organizer.

Backing up the charges of high tensions at the office, one caseworker reported to the protesters that a fight among applicants had taken place that morning. As security personnel were trying to expel us, a fistfight broke out not far away.

Service Employees union Representative Ray Martinez and Cheri Honkala, founder of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, explained afterwards why stress levels are so high. “Conditions are already at explosive levels, and it’s going to get much worse next month when 75,000 Pennsylvania residents lose their unemployment benefits,” said Honkala. “Many of those people will be applying for welfare because there aren’t enough jobs. We demand that DPW [Philadelphia’s Department of Public Welfare] have a plan to change the hostile environment they helped create. If someone gets hurt, they will be partly to blame.”

A press release issued by the protest’s organizers demanded that Congress not cut unemployment benefits until an equal number of good jobs are available.