from the DataCenter's Economic Justice Program, Spring/Summer 2002

NYC Welfare Workers Organize to Stop Job Privatization

On the last day of the Giuliani administration, New York City's departing welfare commissioner, Jason Turner, ordered the dismissal of more than 3,500 former welfare recipients from their union jobs at the city parks department.

Instead, the Human Resources Administration (HRA) planned to turn welfare recipients over to TempForce, a franchise whose corporate parent Randstad is the third largest temporary help agency in the world, for job placement. Under a $578 million contract the HRA had quietly signed with TempForce last fall, parks workers who were lucky enough to be rehired would earn $7.95 per hour for doing the same work that had paid $9.38 per hour and union benefits.

The TempForce contract would also replace the city's recently launched Parks Opportunity Program (POP), which places welfare recipients approaching their benefits time limit in short-term city jobs. In addition to city wages and benefits, POP gives recipients one day off a week, with pay, to attend education or job training programs, including GED, ESL, landscaping and garden maintenance classes.

When the news leaked out, Community Voices Heard and union leaders swung into action. Their rapid mobilization ensured that no parks workers were dismissed, and were able to complete their work terms at $9.38 per hour.

Moreover, within days of Turner's proclamation and after a vociferous protest by welfare recipients and union leaders on the steps of City Hall, newly elected Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his decision to review the Giuliani-era TempForce contract and consider the city's options before moving forward with contract implementation.

And in May, the city reached an agreement to continue POP, following a six month freeze on placements initiated by the Giuliani administration.

Henry Serrano, an organizer with Community Voices Heard, credits the DataCenter's background research on TempForce for helping the mobilization. Information about TempForce's and Randstad's labor-related and other legal problems made concerns about privatization real -- and helped organizers and workers alike quickly recognize the importance of taking action.

For further information or to get involved, contact Community Voices Heard.