AFSCME's Blueprint for Welfare Reform

Members need to know that real welfare reform isn't about punishing welfare recipients, but helping create real jobs for welfare families while protecting poor children.

To do that, everyone in the union movement must let elected officials know that changes in state welfare laws must not hurt poor children or make it harder for working families to make a living.

AFSCME's principles for real welfare reform are simple:

• Create Real, New Jobs
  In the next five years, the states will have to create up to 2 million new jobs for people leaving welfare. This must be done without taking jobs away from people who already have them. And the new jobs must be real jobs that pay workers enough to raise a family and lift themselves out of poverty.
• Make Work Fair
  We are in danger of creating a new sub-class of workers. Everyone who works should be treated the same and enjoy the same rights, such as minimum wage, overtime, health and safety protections, and the opportunity to join a union.
• Treat Immigrants Like Every Other Taxpayer
  Like everyone else in America, legal immigrants work hard and pay taxes. Sometimes they need help from the government just like everybody else. Forcing more immigrants into poverty helps no one and goes against the principles of freedom and equality that generations of Americans have fought and died for.
• Beware of "Wealthfare"
  Corporate profiteers are lining up to run state welfare programs, companies answerable not to taxpayers but to their stockholders. Only public workers directly responsible to taxpayers should administer the new programs-not for-profit operations more interested in making a buck than in the welfare of America's poor.
• Protect Families, Not Corporations
  Corporations today enjoy federal tax breaks and subsidies totaling over $300 billion a year. Ordinary people pay for these breaks by paying higher personal income taxes to make up for the corporate tax shortfalls. Politicians need to eliminate special deals for corporations before taking one more dollar out of programs providing basic services to the poor, including health care, child nutrition and community services.
• Make Children Better Off
  Poverty in America is overwhelmingly about children. Any efforts to reform the nation's welfare system should be about leaving them better off, not worse.