For Immediate Release
Wednesday, December 10, 1997
Statement from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee in support of Jobs With Justice's National Day of Action for Welfare/Workfare Justice
"The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) proudly endorses the National Day of Action for Welfare/Workfare Justice to call attention to the current state of welfare reform.
"Welfare reform should center on creating jobs that offer fair wages, benefits and safe working conditions, without taking jobs away from people who already have them. Instead, we have a system that presents obstacles for those men and women forced to work off their welfare benefits. There are few training and educational opportunities, and inadequate child care continues to be a problem.
"AFSCME and our coalition partners have been on the front line pushing for basic worker protections -- the minimum wage, worker’s compensation, OSHA protections and unemployment compensation.
"Another issue of grave concern to working families is the effort to privatize social services. Changes in the welfare law have brought companies like EDS, Lockheed Martin, Maximus and others out of the woodwork -- seizing the opportunity to turn a profit. When our tax dollars are used to assist people in need, public workers who are responsible to the taxpayer should administer food stamps and other such programs, not corporations more interested in profits rather than public service.
"When Congress overhauled the nation’s welfare system we were told it was an end to welfare as we know it. It wasn’t, however, the end to an ongoing cycle of poverty. There are simply not enough jobs for the two million people who are expected to go from welfare to work by 2002. To make welfare reform work everyone has to have the right to a decent standard of living in order to achieve economic security and human dignity."
