New Workfare Group Wins Support id DAA00244; Fri, 17 Oct 1997 03:15:06 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 23, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- NEW WORKFARE GROUP WINS LABOR, COMMUNITY SUPPORT By Phil Wilayto Close to 50 low-wage workers, union members, community organizers and participants in Wisconsin's W-2 "welfare reform" program packed a conference room in Milwaukee's Martin Luther King Library Oct. 9 in a strong show of support for a new organization of W-2 workers. "W-2 Workers United is here to say that if we are workers, then we deserve the right to be in a union!" declared Janice Thurman, opening the meeting. Thurman, a single mother, former welfare recipient and now union postal worker, is a leader in the effort to unionize W-2 workers. "Before this is over," she said, "W-2 is going to affect everybody, union and non-union, employed and unemploy ed. That is why we want to unionize." That sentiment was seconded by John Goldstein, secretary- treasurer of the Milwaukee County Labor Council, which represents 70,000 union members in the area. "I give a lot of credit to W-2 Workers United for doing the hard work in getting this process started," said Goldstein. The union leader also pointed to prison labor as another coercive, low-wage program designed to increase profits for the bosses. To meet these challenges, Goldstein said, the labor movement will have to look at developing new forms of organization, particularly stressing unity between the employed and the unemployed. Gerty Purifoy, a staff representative with AFSCME District Council 48, also offered support. Speaking for the district's director, Richard Abelson, Purifoy said: "D.C. 48 represents 6,000 members. We pledge our support for your efforts and want to get behind the program you are building." Other activists who pledged support for W2WU included Jean Verber of the Women in Poverty Initiative, longtime civil- rights and community activist Lucille Berrien, Brother Kwon Benyatta of Kwanzaa House, and Pat Scott of the A Job Is a Right Campaign. Scott emphasized the need for the new movement to struggle against racism. David Tolich, a welfare-rights activist visiting Milwaukee from New Zealand, reported that the government there is holding up Wisconsin's W-2 program as a model for ending social welfare programs in that country. He described how unions, community and political groups have formed new alliances to fight the attacks. "This development is taking place at the same time as a re- emergence of the Indigenous struggle," he said. Representatives from the organizations Welfare Warriors, Coalition for Change and the Ujaama Project also attended the meeting. The event received local news coverage. W2WU organizers plan to sign up more members, develop an organizational structure, support labor struggles in the area and reach out to the labor movement on the issue of unionizing W-2 Workers. W-2 Workers United can be reached in care of the A Job Is a Right Campaign, PO Box 06053, Milwaukee, WI 53206. Phone: (414) 462-5208 or 374-1034. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-10.17.97-03:15:24-15351