Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 17:46:25 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: M-TH: NY March for Workfare Union


>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 17:34:53 -0800 (PST)
>From: Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher-AT-igc.apc.org>
>Subject: NY March for Workfare Union; Heritage Foundation Flush with $$
>
>----
>December 11, 1997
>
>Marchers Press for Workfare Union
>
>By ALAN FINDER
>
>    NEW YORK -- More than 400 New York City workfare participants and their
>supporters from local labor unions marched for an
>    hour in lower Manhattan early Wednesday morning, trying to press the
>Giuliani administration to recognize their effort to
>create a union representing welfare recipients.
>
>The unusual coalition -- people on public assistance who work part-time in
>city agencies in return for their benefits and members of
>organized labor -- also sought to lobby city officials for more formal job
>training for poor people.
>
>They contend that the mostly menial tasks, including street sweeping or leaf
>raking in parks, performed by workfare workers in the
>city program known officially as the Work Experience Program, or WEP, do not
>prepare them for real jobs.
>
>"You know what? I'm angry," said Pierre Simmons, a workfare participant who
>spoke to the crowd after it had marched, beginning
>at 8 a.m., from City Hall Park up Broadway to Leonard Street, then past
>downtown court buildings to the steps of the Municipal
>Building on Centre Street.
>
>"It's not right that WEP workers work out in the cold without proper
>equipment," he said. "It's not right that WEP workers are abused
>by their supervisors."
>
>Simmons and other speakers noted that nearly 17,000 workfare participants
>had voted in a nonbinding election in October to
>create a union. The Giuliani administration has refused to negotiate with
>leaders of the community group that organized the vote,
>the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn.
>
>City officials say that welfare is temporary and that workfare participants
>are not city employees, and thus they are not permitted to
>be represented by a union.
>
>Acorn and other groups advocating on behalf of the city's more than 30,000
>workfare participants also said they would press for a
>formal grievance procedure for WEP workers.
>
>"You're a worker, and you've got a right to a day's pay for a day's work,"
>said Ed Ott, the director of public policy for the New York
>City Central Labor Council. "You've got a right to be organized."
>
>Several other labor leaders promised to support the workfare participants'
>attempt to be recognized as a union. "We will stand with
>you in your fight for representation," said Nick Unger, an organizer for
>UNITE, a union that represents apparel workers. "You will
>not be alone."
>
>      Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company




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