Return to Current Issue

"Poverty pimps" are stealing money from all our pockets. Enacted in 1998, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) was supposed to help people get training so they could get good jobs, in other words investing in the workforce.

Yet WIA is a one-sided investment. At the local level, NPA believes WIA stands for Waste in America-where the only entity benefiting is the for-profit industry.

They say their work fulfills niches in the workforce by connecting employees with employers. But we know differently. They take a percentage of our wages and call it efficiency. They train us for jobs that don't exist or train too many of us so it brings wages down. They take government money and call it community development, economic development or investing in the workforce. PIMPS- Look out NPA is biting back.

The other pimps are the day labor industry-exploiting the low-wage workers. There has been a significant rise in the number of day labor and temp agencies that do not offer long-term employment. The very nature of this type of employment is insecure and perpetuates poverty. These employment agencies are involved in the WIA system and also utilize both the Work Opportunity and Welfare to Work tax credits.

There is a lack of accountability and regulation at the federal, state and local level on how workers are treated within these agencies. Age, race and gender discrimination, excessive fees associated with work (i.e. transportation fees, safety equipment, uniforms, and check cashing fees), and lack of grievance policies are common activities practiced by these agencies.

NPA affiliate groups are combating the pimps all across the country and winning. The jobs workshop will focus on campaigns that address the following issues:

· Access to and creation of better training;

· Undocumented and immigrant workers abuses;

· Corporate accountability and public subsidies;

· Workers centers as a solution to employment abuses;

· Day labor and temporary employment abuses;

· Youth access to summer jobs.

These are the issues we are working on this year, building on past campaigns to create better jobs, better training and better government investments.