Philadelphia Points the Way
A tentative December agreement between Philadelphia city officials and AFSCME representatives demonstrates that unions can secure the rights of working people as local governments comply with welfare reform.
International Vice Pres. Henry Nicholas unveiled the breakthrough agreement in a dramatic moment at the Washington conference on welfare reform.
"Last night in Philadelphia," said the president of NUHHCE/Local 1199, "the mayor and his team accepted our proposal for including workfare recipients in the city's workforce."
Nicholas, like union leaders across the country, was concerned that an ill-conceived reform of welfare would take existing jobs from working people-including AFSCME members-and create costly dead-end jobs for welfare recipients.
The big break came the evening of the first day of the International's welfare conference, when Nicholas and others rushed back to Philadelphia to meet with Mayor Ed Rendell's negotiating team.
The negotiated agreement was built on three principles:
- Philadelphia workfare jobs will have no sub-minimum wage scales, and will guarantee workfare workers the same wages, rights and working conditions as other regular employees.
- Philadelphia workfare jobs will come with health coverage.
- Philadelphia workfare jobs in public or private sectors would enable recipients to join AFSCME or other relevant unions.
What we've agreed to," said Nicholas, "may offer a pathway for unions and cities across the nation looking for a way to create real jobs for welfare recipients while pre-serving the benefits and dignity of working people already employed."
