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Members of New Mexico ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) have just begun building a welfare rights union in a state where the governor vetoed the legislature's welfare reform bill and illegally attempted to impose his own plan by fiat with the result that statewide the caseload has been cut in half. Head organizer Matthew Henderson says that over 700 people have signed authorization cards so far. Outreach began in December in welfare centers and low income ACORN neighborhoods, including trailer parks that are Albuquerque's equivalent of tenements. Neighborhood meetings were held around the negative impact of the new renegade welfare regulations. (One woman who was within four weeks of completing a nursing degree was told by her caseworker she would have to drop out and take a minimum wage job.)

The legislature's successful court challenge put the need for an implementation plan back on the political agenda. ACORN members had to be quick to keep up with the lawmakers' rush to bang out a compromise bill during their off-year, one month session. When ACORN members caught wind of the proposed compromise legislation, a Martin Luther King Day rally was hastily organized to target problems in the new bill. When the bill passed the lower house almost immediately, a dozen ACORN leaders sped to Santa Fe to testify at Senate hearings where, according to Henderson, they managed to win important amendments governing the calculation of family income in determining benefit levels.

ACORN's 1998 plans include campaigning for defining work toward a college degree as vocational education. A series of actions began in late February to win reinstatement and back benefits for people adversely affected during the period the governor's draconian regulations were in place.

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



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