The Economy

Pending Proposals

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Mayor and his staff have been working with AFSCME and other labor unions, advocates for welfare recipients and the unemployed, and business representatives to come up with a proposal acceptable to all. There are three major components of the Job Creation Proposal for Philadelphia using the Welfare-to-Work funds with which they hope to create a total of 3,000 positions.

  • Job Training

    The job readiness activity authorized by federal legislation would be defined as job training and last 12 weeks. The job readiness component would be 10 hours of training combined with work experience for some, and a full time program for others. The 1199C/AFSCME Training and Upgrade Fund, which already has a strong record in training people for health care jobs, would provide the training. After a maximum of 12 weeks of training, welfare recipients would be placed in a subsidized job in the private sector.
  • Work Subsidy Program in Private Sector

    Private employers would accept trained recipients into temporary subsidized positions for 3 to 6 months, during which time recipients would work 25 hours a week and get health care through Medicaid. Private employers also could get recipients who have not participated in the job readiness program, if the recipients are job ready. The subsidy would be all or a portion of the welfare grant with the employer contributing 50% of the wages, as required under Pennsylvania law. There is no decision yet on wage rates for this component of the program. After the wage subsidy ends in 3 or 6 months, the employer must hire the welfare recipient as a permanent employee. The Mayor has met with 1199C/AFSCME and health care and nursing home providers in the Philadelphia area who have agreed to consider placements of welfare recipients in their facilities. After the subsidy ends, for-profit employers who hire the welfare recipients would qualify for state and federal tax credits.

    The Mayor, health care providers and unions have assigned staff to meet and work out more details of the plan. Some issues that must be addressed are availability of child care and transportation during off-peak hours, specifically shift changes in the health care industry. Proposals include a non-profit transportation pool based on the analysis of the needs of welfare recipients placed with the nursing homes and health care providers. The network of child care providers must be expanded to accommodate the but created by the wage subsidy program. Their current expansion capacity is 3,500 positions, but many more are needed to accommodate the large number of welfare recipients required to work.
  • Public Service Employment Through Wage Subsidies

    Over the next two years, the City is proposing to place 375 to 400 welfare recipients in city government positions for a maximum of six months, totaling 1,500 to 2,000 placements in public agencies. The proposal guarantees current staffing levels in public agencies to prevent displacement of current workers. This component would focus on non-custodial parents, in addition to welfare recipients, and include school-to-career participants. The employees would get the minimum wage, and after 6 months would receive a retroactive bonus if they got a job. The bonus would bring their wages up to $6.50 an hour if they got a job, although there is no guarantee of a job after six months. The employer would be a charitable trust set up for this purpose. They are exploring the possibility that placements be clerical, security and custodial jobs. The City is also working with AFSCME DC 37 and DC 47 to best determine how incumbent city workers could act as mentors, supervisors or otherwise assist with training the recipients placed in their job sites. There are strong displacement protections and the union would have to agree to any placement prior to assignment of the welfare recipient to the position.


The union and City continue to meet to discuss these details.

Detroit, Michigan

The Mayor, labor unions and the business community have been meeting to come up with a plan to create jobs in Detroit. Under the latest proposal, the City would spend one half of its Welfare-to-Work funds on job search and job placement activities for non-custodial parents ($5.5 million), and one half on employment activities for welfare recipients ($5.5 million). It expects to create 2,000 to 3,000 placements with its grant of $11 million. City officials and labor unions are meeting to work out an agreement on the proposal.

The proposal would place welfare recipients in a subsidized job in the public or private sector, and training would begin as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days after placement. The wage rate would be $7 or $8 an hour. If the employer where the welfare recipient is placed cannot conduct the training, the City will contract out training activities to a school. The emphasis of the training will be skill development. When the training is complete, the employer must hire the employee into a regular job but in no case could the training last longer than 6 months. Detroit’s Employment and Training Department has asked city agencies to project vacancies they expect over the next 3 years due to attrition to see if the City could absorb many of these placements. The City is proposing to place welfare recipients in trainee classification positions until the training is complete, after which time they would become regular city employees.

Indianapolis, Indiana

The Mayor’s staff, the Indianapolis PIC and AFSCME have met to design a program to place 100 welfare recipients in public service jobs that would last 24 months. City departments and the quasi-public Wishard hospital are the likely placement sites. The proposal, which is still under discussion, would have recipients in an on-the-job training program for the first six months while they continue to collect their TANF benefits. This would be followed by 18 months of subsidized employment. Retention in the position after the subsidy has run out is a major goal of the program. The union will work with the City to identify potential job placements and wage rates. There would be strong protections against displacement of current workers. The union is also exploring the best ways to utilize the incumbent workforce as mentors or trainers for the recipients.

Albany, New York

Local 1961/Council 66 has been working on a proposal with the City of Albany to initiate a welfare-to-work program, which would include workfare and wage subsidy programs. The union is still negotiating with the City over the terms and conditions under which placements of welfare recipients into the workplace will be made.

The union's plan in Albany proposes 100 positions which would be a combination of workfare and wage subsidy positions using the welfare recipients’ cash grant. Under the proposal, the employer would recognize Local 1961 as the representative of the workers and the collective bargaining agreement covering Local 1961’s bargaining unit would be applicable to the welfare workers. The union and the City would work to develop a plan for providing workfare and wage subsidy workers with the skills and training needed for permanent jobs. The agreement stresses that the City should use the wage subsidy program rather than workfare whenever possible.

The wage rate for both workfare and work subsidy program would be the highest of the following: federal minimum wage, the state minimum wage, prevailing occupational wage or local living wage. If the work performed by the welfare worker is covered by a job classification, the rate of pay for the job classification would be used.

The displacement protections include: regular employees would perform any overtime required by the employer; work schedules and assignments would be developed in consultation with the union; and the union would identify workers who could be placed in apprenticeship or "step-up" programs. The City could not place welfare workers if any members are on layoffs, furlough, or a reduced work schedule. The City union must maintain current staffing levels at the time the program would begin. The agreement prohibits the City from displacing any employee or position, including partial displacement. The City could not impose a hiring freeze if it is using welfare workers in any of its workplaces. The City would not privatize work currently performed by any part of the bargaining unit and would not privatize any current or new work which would be performed by welfare workers. Finally, the City must give the union 60 days notice prior to placing a welfare worker.

The union and the City will work to identify sources of funding for job training and skill development. Welfare workers would use the grievance procedure established in the union’s contract for workplace violations. The union would not be required to represent welfare recipients at hearings related to the welfare program, including pre-termination hearings.

CALIFORNIA

Merced County

United Domestic Workers of America (UDW), an AFSCME affiliate representing In Home Supportive Service (IHSS) workers, is working with county Human Services Agencies to develop proposals for accessing some of the federal in Welfare-to-Work funds for pilot programs involving IHSS workers. Currently, they are in negotiations with Merced County and exploring the potential for working with Tulare County.

UDW’s proposal is to use welfare-to-work funds to structure and enhance the IHSS program so that these home health care positions become decent employment opportunities with training, living wages and benefits sufficient to maintain a former welfare recipient in a real career with a real future. Depending on funding levels, UDW estimates that this pilot program could result in as many as 150 jobs for welfare recipients. UDW estimates that roughly 60% of its current membership are former welfare recipients and so believes this program is a natural vehicle to get welfare recipients jobs.

UDW plans to access the welfare-to-work formula grant funds through the Private Industry Councils and will attempt to receive funding from the governor’s 15% set-aside. It has targeted counties in which it has strong relationships with elected county officials.

East Bay Regional Park District (Local 2428; Council 57)

AFSCME Local 2428 has been in negotiations with the East Bay Regional Park District for several months about the Local’s welfare-to-work proposal to place 25-50 welfare recipients in its job sites using wage subsidies for 18-24 months. The Local wants the Park District to use federal formula grant welfare-to-work funds (as well as the $18 million in reserve funds and expected additional state revenues from a bond measure and state legislation) to expand the work of the Park District beyond the current number of employees. So far, the Park District has responded that it will only consider filling currently-funded, unfilled vacancies with welfare recipients. The Local finds this to be unacceptable as it believes any slots should be new positions.

The Local's proposal would develop a pilot program to bring welfare recipients into the regional parks as employees in new positions, such as Park Ranger, Laborer, and Administrative Clerk. Special training would be required to allow welfare recipients to acquire the skills and experience to meet the minimum qualifications of the position they hope to attain. A second tier of new apprentice type positions would also be set up to allow Rangers, clericals, and others to be promoted into more skilled positions. This, in turn, would allow more openings for entry level workers.

Local 2428 has been working closely with the labor and CBO representatives on both the Alameda and Contra Costa County PICS, the two counties encompassing the East Bay regional parks. A State Assemblywoman is also heavily supporting the proposal with the Park District board.

Local 2428 plans to continue its negotiations with the Park District and enlist the active support of PIC members.

City of Los Angeles

AFSCME’s initiative to work with the City of Los Angeles to create wage-paying public employment was triggered by a proposal to establish workfare in a city department. The Bureau of Street Maintenance, a program in the Department of Public Works, proposed last October to establish 50 workfare slots for welfare recipients to perform clerical and maintenance laborer functions. AFSCME represents the clericals; SEIU represents the blue-collar workers.

After AFSCME was notified about this plan, the Local voiced its opposition. Staff from the District Council, in consultation with the International Union, initiated meetings with City Councilperson Jackie Goldberg, to attempt to get the Council to establish a policy in opposition to workfare and instead to promote using welfare-to-work funds to create new jobs in the public sector. This work is being undertaken in tandem with the SEIU.

In reaction to the union's opposition, the Bureau of Street Maintenance has withdrawn its workfare plan. AFSCME is still negotiating with the City Council to get a city-wide policy against workfare and for real job creation. The District Council’s bottom-line issues are that job creation cannot result in a diminution of bargaining unit members and that the City resurrect a CETA classification of "office trainee" for welfare recipients to be placed into clerical work and into our bargaining units.

In addition to AFSCME’s initiatives in the job creation area, a broad-based coalition has formed, the L.A. Metropolitan Alliance. The Metro Alliance has a wide-ranging agenda which includes support for job creation strategies. It has sponsored community meetings and is currently drafting its own job creation plan for Los Angeles.

Seattle, Washington

The City of Seattle is one of six Jobs Initiative sites funded through start-up grants from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (the others are Denver, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and St. Louis). One of the six strategies is the "Preparatory Employment -- Pilot on Wage Supplementation." As currently formulated, it is a pilot to serve the harder to serve TANF recipients through use of grant diversion/wage supplemention. Employment will be with city government, nonprofits and for-profit businesses. Each placement will include training, with the expectation that the subsidy will last nine months.

More broadly, the Seattle Jobs Initiative (SJI) plans to target particular sectors for training and placement. Health care and precision metal work were the two targeted sectors for the initial implementation phase. It also will place Head Start parents into private sector temporary jobs using the PACE Staffing Network, which acts as a temp agency. The plan is that after 90 days the participant would be hired permanently. SJI also includes an Employment Linkage Project which is designed to link publicly funded investments for employers (e.g., loans and tax incentives) with those employers offering jobs to city residents. This project has also established a "broker function", which is a One Stop for employers looking for workers or needing help establishing training programs. This function will be provided by a Chamber of Commerce-affiliated group.

The four core principles of the SJI are:

  1. Placements should be at livable wage (at least $8.00/hour);
  2. Emphasis on retention, not quick placements;
  3. Highly responsive to employers’ needs;
  4. Comprehensive services for job seekers (including health care, child care, transportation, housing).

SJI’s total budget for 1997 was $3.7 million, including funds from the city, large private employers like Boeing, and Casey Foundation money. The city’s Office of Economic Development has overall responsibility for the program. Most of the direct services will be provided by private and nonprofit groups through outcome-based contracts. The program will serve not only TANF recipients (who represented only 14% of the placements as of September, 1997), but also the unemployed, legal immigrants, and the working poor.

Pennsylvania Jobs Programs

Legislation introduced in Pennsylvania would create the Job Opportunities in Basic Services (JOBS) Program. The program would create 10,000 jobs in public and non-profit agencies for recipients of public assistance. Placements would be designed to "...ensure that all participants are engaged in activities that provide valuable work experience to the participant and produce demonstrable public benefit."

The proposal would require that at least 60% of all participants would be individuals who are: basic skill deficient; lacking a high school diploma or equivalency diploma; or without significant prior work experience. Each placement could last for up to 18 months, and would be a full-time position paying a minimum of $6.00 per hour. If employees ordinarily employed to do comparable work were paid at higher rates, the employer would be required to pay the difference between the prevailing rate and the $6.00 per hour minimum.

The proposal also requires that funding would not come from federal TANF funds so that participants would not be subject to the federal time limit on receipt of benefits. State expenditures would count toward the state meeting its federal "maintenance of effort" obligation so long as participants' families meet the financial eligibility requirements established under the state's TANF program.

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