Organizing Resources

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The state already has 10,000 welfare recipients in county controlled Community Work Experience Programs (CWEP) working for government agencies, schools, and non-profit agencies. Within the next few years, 50,000 people are expected to be drafted into the state's Work First program. Four of the five counties where the bulk of these participants live are in northeastern New Jersey.

New Jersey Head Organizer Sylvana Mozella reports that the New Jersey ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) CWEP Workers Union has just begun outreach to workfare participants in Essex (Newark, East Orange), Hudson (Jersey City), Passaic (Paterson), and Union Counties and 600 authorization cards have already been signed. (Mercer County [Trenton] is also targeted for 1998.) By the end of February, it will have held six organizing committee meetings and over 20 initial work site meetings.

Initial worksite actions in Newark and East Orange have raised demands around rain gear, uniforms, gloves, and the posting of vacancies. The first citywide action in Jersey City held in February saw dozens of CWEP workers demanding back transportation checks and an end to punitive investigations for seeking to exercise their legal rights.

ACORN has entered into an important strategic alliance with the Communications Workers of America council which represents public employees throughout the state. In Newark, the CWA, which represents many caseworkers, is facilitating a meeting between senior welfare officials and a NJCWU delegation which will negotiate around a list of 200 specific grievances related to illegal sanctions, transportation checks, and unsafe working conditions. Negotiations will be backed up with firm deadlines for when CWEP workers will return en masse for their checks.

Prepared by John Beam for the Workfare Organizing Support Center, a Welfare Law Center project.

-- from the March 2nd 1998 issue of Welfare News