CWA 1180 - HRA Watch

HRA Watch

Slavery with a stipend
by Arthur Cheliotes
July 2002

Its supporters hide the reality of welfare "reform" behind that dishonest term.

Reform movements traditionally work to improve lives, enhance opportunities and bring us closer to the kind of society we all want and deserve. They are moved by a fundamental respect for all people and our potential. To call the current welfare policy "reform" is a grotesque and cruel joke and, as the welfare reform law of 1996 comes up for renewal, its record is the best argument for dumping it.

When the Giuliani Administration first launched its workfare program, it promised that welfare reform would crack the "cycle of poverty", train people and get them off welfare, decrease the demand on services, reduce hunger and homelessness and help welfare recipients' children by providing better role models.

But the record of welfare reform tells a different story: poverty has deepened, there are more homeless women and children, demand for healthcare and other services has increased, and while there are fewer people on welfare, there are more applying and re-applying for it. And what about the children? The New York Times recently reported that adolescent children of workfare participants do worse in school than those of welfare recipients who stay home.

The result of this dismal failure is that the poor people have been pushed into a torturous hell of red tape, frustration, desperation and suffering. Their lives are more stressful, less hopeful and less productive.

Welfare reform has never been about improving lives; it's about getting people to work for next to nothing and destroying their lives in the process. It is a form of slavery with a stipend.

The truth is that New York's economy, battered by years of policies hostile to working and poor people, simply can't employ our citizens at decent wages. Yet those policies have also increased the need for basic services. So welfare reform forces poor New Yorkers to provide those services at a fraction of the minimum wage. It's a violation of human rights and labor law and an affront to any civilized society. And, like all social policy atrocities, its impact bleeds into all our lives.

Our members in HRA live a daily adventure of violence, tension, and exploding workloads because of welfare reform. And our communities are affected by deepening poverty and desperation. Finally, the presence of a desperate workforce either working or willing to work for any amount of money enables job cuts, limits the creation of new jobs and makes negotiating improvements in our wages and benefits that much more difficult.

Our city needs real reform: financial and social policies that encourage and use the potential of our citizens to turn New York around. The first step is to recognize the immoral essence of "welfare reform", stop it and begin repairing the devastation it has caused.

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