Unions and Welfare Reform: Labor's Stake in the Ongoing Struggle over the Welfare State

Simmons, Louise

doi:10.1353/lab.2002.0028

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Though not protected by the status of a permanent employee or the opportunity to unionize, welfare-to-work staff certainly do not fit into the paradigm of contingent and temp workers situated in the low-wage secondary labor market (Barley and Kunda 2004;Heinrich 2005;Simmons 2002). In Regal County, as in many locations nationwide, welfare reform was accompanied by new flows of money that have provisioned welfare-to-work with comparatively lavish office space and the fiscal ability to treat employees well (Hays 2003).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many cases neither are considered permanent employees and there are few or limited opportunities to organize. Though there has been precedent for collaboration between unions representing permanent welfare staff and advocates on behalf of welfare and workfare participants (Reese and Newcombe 2003;Simmons 2002), these paradigms must be re-conceptualized to overcome barriers to solidarity that are produced by the nuances of contingent government work in the arena of welfare reform.…”

Section: Contingent Welfare Employees and Barriers To Solidaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though the court system and legislative bodies have yet to recognize workfare workers as workers with the same rights as all other workers, including the right to organize, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which nationally represents thousands of welfare related employees, has given serious consideration to organizing workfare workers. In some states AFSCME has worked with welfare advocacy organizations (such as the Kensington Welfare Rights Union) in efforts to combat poverty and also advance its own priorities including protecting permanent welfare employees from threats of privatization and outsourcing (Simmons 2002). Similarly, in the case of Working Massachusetts, a unified consortium of welfare rights activists and organized labor (including the Service Employees International Union-SEIU, which represents social service workers there) have collaboratively focused on such issues as training options for welfare recipients, childcare access, workfare workers' rights, protection of current workers and privatization (Simmons 2002).…”

Section: Precedent and New Paradigms For Labor Solidaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases this has occurred following the 1996 welfare reform (Reese and Newcombe 2003;Simmons 2002;Tait 2005), but considerable barriers persist. Of primary concern in this paper is the unanswered question of where new genres of contingent government contract workers who were recruited to implement part of the reform fit into the equation of welfare client and caseworker solidarity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If it ignored this constituency, organized labor would fail to capitalize on a significant portion of the working class, as well as forgo a chance to pioneer a holistic approach to economic and social justice (see Fletcher 1997). Furthermore, it would leave un-addressed welfare reform's major challenges to labor, including the creation of workfare programs that neglect basic workplace rights, the displacement of existing jobs with workfare slots, displacement issues of private sector involvement in the privatization of welfare functions and the flooding of the low-wage workforce with individuals who are mandated to take any job offered (Simmons 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Contingent Government Workers and Labor Solidarity: The Case of Contract Welfare-to-Work Staff and Their Clients

Ridzi

2007

Qual Sociol

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Contemporary US labor solidarity faces new opportunities and challenges in the midst of global economic and governmental restructuring. Indicative of these changes the 1996 welfare reform has created a new brand of contingent government contract workers to implement welfare-to-work while simultaneously fostering contingent work among welfare clients. In this paper I use ethnographic data from a major city in New York State to explore the relative positioning of these labor groups and I ask whether contingent government workers could mediate between organized labor and welfare recipients, thereby facilitating political collaboration. I conclude by identifying considerable structural and interpersonal barriers to solidarity including lack of contingent worker consciousness, difference in "skill" levels, antagonistic relationships with clients and a tendency to interpret client hardships in terms of personal defects. I contrast these findings with instances where labor unions have become involved in welfare issues and propose steps toward a new paradigm for labor solidarity.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contingent Welfare Employees and Barriers To Solidaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Precedent and New Paradigms For Labor Solidaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contingent Government Workers and Labor Solidarity: The Case of Contract Welfare-to-Work Staff and Their Clients

Ridzi

2007

Qual Sociol

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Connecting Trade Unions to the Community: Promoting Employment for Individuals with Mental Health Conditions

Akabas

Gates

2009

Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health

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The findings of a research effort that sought to define the mutual interests of unions and individuals with mental health conditions, their family members, and service providers are reported. The data were gathered from a nonrandom sample of trade union experts in disability policy and procedures. The research question posed is: What is the potential for unions to serve as a source of work options, valuable information on workplace cultures, and workplace supports to individuals with mental health conditions? Reported are the practices and existing supports in current union activities and related situations that might be adopted to assist persons with mental health conditions. The opportunities for the future for providers, individuals, and union representatives, including information on union apprenticeships and how to work with unions on job maintenance, accommodation, and retention issues for individuals with mental health conditions is provided. For social service providers clarification is offered concerning issues that are important to unions (e.g., collective bargaining agreements) to help all parties understand each other and communicate effectively to create partnerships among unions, providers, and individuals with mental health conditions that will sustain work for those seeking competitive employment.

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Workfare and resistance in the US: the quietude and ineffectiveness of progressive welfare politics post 1996

MacLeavy

2014

Geographical Journal

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This paper focuses on the implementation of workfare in the US, with the aim of understanding the passive response of the unions and other progressive groups to the restructuring and retrenchment of the American welfare system. In particular, it considers the disparate efforts to organise welfare recipients and low-wage workers around the restructuring of social benefits towards work in the District of Columbia. Although the convergence of welfare recipients and low-wage workers through 'work-first' initiatives has the potential to spur political mobilisation and protest against the reform of welfare, it is found that at the local level campaigns against workfare are diverse and changeable, producing very little -it could be argued -in terms of long-term resistance. Identifying forms of dissidence in Washington DC as constitutive of the broader liberal regime of governance and re-regulation, this paper probes the forms, possibilities and problems of organising workfare subjects. This allows for consideration of the extent to which workfare programmes are being re-inscribed within emerging patterns of political-economic development and the potential for future action.

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Unions and Welfare Reform: Labor's Stake in the Ongoing Struggle over the Welfare State

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Contingent Government Workers and Labor Solidarity: The Case of Contract Welfare-to-Work Staff and Their Clients

Contingent Government Workers and Labor Solidarity: The Case of Contract Welfare-to-Work Staff and Their Clients

Connecting Trade Unions to the Community: Promoting Employment for Individuals with Mental Health Conditions

Workfare and resistance in the US: the quietude and ineffectiveness of progressive welfare politics post 1996

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