Newsom/ Giuliani Care Not Cash, Ready Willing and Able welfare work exploitation.

Dear Mr. Kramer:

The following news item in an e-mail from you is what San Francisco is looking at if Gavin Newsom brings Care Not Cash and the New York Doe Fund's Ready Willing and Able program to San Francisco. And Newsom is busily going about trying to do that as I write. Giuliani connections in NYC have helped him.

What you describe happened out of Giuliani's WEP (Work Experience Program) which exploits welfare workers in New York City. When WEP workers lobbied for a grievance procedure to be put into law, Giuliani casually canned it, telling them he didn't want to fuel their overly high expectations in life. I have Guiliani's creepy remarks on tape along with a loud rebuttal from a woman WEP worker, "You are no better than anybody else!" I agree. That Giuliani - He's a Cold one. Trust me, so is Newsom. - Carol Harvey in San Francisco

From: "portsidemod" <portsidemod [at] yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: portside [at] yahoogroups.com
>To: portside [at] yahoogroups.com
Subject: CITY SERVED TASTY TREAT TO MCD'S: FREE LABOR
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:54:14 -0000

(Portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left.)


New York Post

CITY SERVED TASTY TREAT TO MCD'S: FREE LABOR

By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

New York Post <newyorkpost.com>

HE'S GOT A BEEF: Jose Mercado is a welfare recipient who the city required to work without pay at McDonald's. - Michael Sofronski

September 22, 2002 -- City officials provided a Manhattan McDonald's with free labor, using welfare recipients mandated to work for their benefits, The Post has learned. At least three welfare workers in the city's food service training internships were required to work alongside paid staffers at the fast-food eatery's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum franchise, up until early this month when the arrangement was
terminated.

The three welfare recipients started earlier in the summer and worked for at least 61/2 weeks.

One recipient, Jose Mercado, 37, of Brooklyn, told The Post he had complained about having to do work for free for a company flush with cash, but was advised he had no alternative.

"They told me if I did not keep working there they would close my welfare checks. I don't think it was fair for people like me to have to work in big companies that make lots of money in the place of regular workers," the father of six said.

Mercado said he worked 51/2 hours a day, three days a week at the Intrepid McDonald's.

The former pasta maker, who had difficulty finding work after being let go from a posh Manhattan eatery earlier this year, said two weeks ago he was informed by a program supervisor that he should no longer report to the Intrepid McDonald's. He was not told the reason.

Human Resources Administration officials, who run the work-for-welfare program, said those in the food service program are usually dispatched to work for non-profit organizations, including Veterans Administration cafeterias and state psychiatric hospital around the city.

HRA spokesman David Neustadt said the McDonald's case was the first time a profit-making company had been provided with welfare workers. He confirmed the
arrangement had ended earlier this month, but declined to give specifics for the decision.

"You try different things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't," he said.

Neustadt said Mercado and the others had completed required practical training at non-profit facilities.

The area supervisor for McDonald's Intrepid franchise, Winston Joseph, confirmed several city workers had been there since early summer. He said he did not know why city officials had pulled the plug on the arrangement.

Mercado is now an active member of Make the Road by Working Inc., a low-income family advocacy group. He is participating in the city's job-search program, but has yet to land a paying job.

"I always maintained myself and my family through work. I always worked," he said. "I never asked for public assistance, 'til something happened to me."