In the past two years, workfare has expanded and changed in New York City. From a program requiring 10,000 welfare recipients to work, look for work, or enter education or training programs, it has mushroomed into a program requiring nearly 40,000 recipients at any one time to work for City agencies or contracted nonprofits. The program is set to expand further. Workfare workers represent a new, flexible public workforce whose presence undermines pay and labor standards throughout the municipal employment sector. Workfare workers enjoy little protection, and do not have the right to collectively bargain. This paper examines recent efforts by unions and community organizations to organize workfare workers. Situating the discussion in recent developments in economic sociology, class analysis, and social movement research, it draws on interviews with activists to ask how the uncertainty of flexibility can become an asset to organizing, rather than just an obstacle to it.
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