Portland, OR
The new federal welfare law will have a profound impact on all workers, no matter what job they do or where they live. While the new law requires that states place up to a million welfare recipients in "work activities" in 1997, it doesn't say how enough new jobs will be created to absorb this astounding number of people into the workforce in such a short period of time. Without a sufficient number of jobs for everyone, the new law will result in "musical chairs," denying welfare recipients the real jobs they need and placing tremendous pressure on current workers. We must ensure that measures are in place to prevent this from happening.
The new federal law offers limited protection for current workers faced with losing their jobs as a result of welfare reform. In fact, the new law only prohibits employers from laying off employees with the intent to replace them with welfare placements. Unfilled vacancies in the public- and private-sector can now be converted into workfare slots. Lower-skilled workers are particularly threatened by the loss of protections that were contained in the old welfare law.
The new federal law is silent on many of the workplace protections workfare participants had been entitled to under the old law, including minimum wage, health and safety coverage, the right to join a union, and protection against discrimination. All workers deserve the full protection of the law. We in organized labor know that the establishment of a sub-class of workers without labor protections will bring down the wages and working conditions of all workers.
Real welfare reform must not take job opportunities away from people who already have them. Real jobs must be created that pay workers enough to raise a family and lift them out of poverty. Are workfare participants really "workers?" Our answer is: yes. Everyone who works should enjoy the same rights and have the opportunity to join a union. We should not create a sub-class of workers.
The new federal welfare law also threatens the integrity of the social services delivery system and its accountability to the taxpayer by allowing the profit motive to replace the merit system. Government has an inherent responsibility to provide these services rather than corporations that are more interested in profits.
The AFL-CIO and its affiliates must fight against the potential damage of this law on many levels:
State laws are now a central battleground. The AFL-CIO, together with state federations and central labor councils, affiliates, and community allies, will insist on minimum wage and prevailing wage standards, anti-displacement provisions, strong grievance procedures, and measures to restrict private provision of historically public functions. The AFL-CIO will work in coalition with other groups to ensure that child care, education, transportation, and other key supports are provided to help former welfare recipients enter and remain in the labor market.
Federal legislation must still be pursued to reverse health care cuts and the elimination of Pell grants affecting legal immigrants, to ensure that food stamps are restored for unemployed workers, and to protect against worker displacement; legislation that would compound the problem must be resisted, such as that now before Congress requiring public housing residents to perform six hours of volunteer labor per month to work off their subsidy. Many Governors who supported the welfare law are now complaining that the health care cuts are too deep. We agree. The AFL-CIO also supports federal action to create jobs for welfare recipients, but opposes tax giveaways that would reward employers while degrading the wages of current employees.
Administrative action must be pursued wherever possible. The AFL-CIO will press for worker protections, safeguards for program participants, and public service providers.
Federal laws regulating employer behavior around wages, hours, and conditions have not gone away just because we have a new welfare law. The AFL-CIO will fight against any erosion of employee protections for former welfare recipients placed in public or private workplaces.
Litigation will be pursued where necessary to defend workers' rights. The AFL-CIO also pledges to develop campaign strategies to fight private-sector employers who abuse the new programs or violate public trust through privatization contracts.
The right to organize will be fundamental to defending American living standards and defending the rights of former welfare recipients. The AFL-CIO, working with affiliates, will support efforts to organize former welfare recipients by integrating them into bargaining units, organizing new units, and defending the living standards and working conditions of all employees, whether engaged in work programs through welfare or otherwise.
The AFL-CIO organizing plan for former welfare recipients will include:
- Strategies for integrating new workers into existing bargaining units in unionized work sites.
- Aggressive organizing campaigns.
- Involving and mobilizing union members to support the fight of these former welfare recipients for workplace dignity and living wages as the real route to economic self-sufficiency.
- Coordinating Central Labor Councils and State Federation efforts to support legislative and administrative changes on the municipal and state level that recognize the workplace rights of these former welfare recipients.
- Recruiting and mobilizing our allies from the living wage initiatives to support and assist the efforts of organized labor to gain former welfare recipients the advantages of a decent union job.
The transformation of social policy which has begun with the new welfare law requires a broad effort on many fronts. The AFL-CIO and its affiliates intend to meet this challenge to ensure that a federal law intended to help welfare recipients become self sufficient does not result in the erosion of wages and living standards for all workers.