When you get on welfare, when you apply, it takes 45 days to actually get on it. In those 45 days they want you to go into a two-week program, which is really a training session. You have to be there every day from about nine to about three o'clock. The first day, you introduce yourself to the class and explain why you are there. We all know we are there for our welfare checks, but they make you say what led up to that point. You know, they make you explain how you lost your job and all that. Then they put you on camera and make you interact with someone who is pretending to interview you for a job. And then they let you know what your weak points are and what your strong points are in an interview. You also have to do mock job applications, so you know exactly what to write on them. Then they put you on camera again and you have to come dressed up as if you're really going out on a job interview. And they critique you. They also have--which I recommend to everybody in the United States--a special tape called Get That Job. It's done in a game show format and it lets you see who is right and who is wrong. You know, what to say and what not to say; who is going to get that job and how to present yourself.

If you don't have a job by the end of this two-week training course, then you probably will be put on Workfare. You will start working for your check like I do.

When they send you to orientation for Workfare, they show you a film. The film tells you what your job is going to be. All I am doing is cleaning the streets.

At orientation, they also tell you this is not job training; you are simply working for your welfare check. If you want a job, you have to go out and look on your own time. Also, they told us the only places involved in the program were the city Parks and Sanitation Departments. After going and working in the Sanitation Department, I found out that is not true. Workfare people are everywhere. We're in dentist offices, we are in hospitals. And yes, we are in Parks and Sanitation. We're in schools. And we are working at the Welfare Department itself. I don't know why they didn't tell us about this at orientation.

My day begins miserably. I am sometimes crying, literally crying, because they treat you so poorly there. When I wake up in the morning, I make sure I eat and go to the bathroom before I leave, simply because, at the site, we have to go door to door to try to find businesses that'll let you use the bathroom. That's not easy.

We have to report at seven in the morning. Then we're hopped up into a van to go where in the garbage is hanging out. They take us out onto the street, and we're given brooms and shovels and garbage cans. And they say, sweep from point A to point B. And sometimes, that's twenty blocks. Then they run around and make sure you are working. There are these guys in white cars who are our supervisors and they are not very nice people, I tell you. When it rains, these guys in their cars make sure you're working. And you can't complain or go look for shelter if it's raining hard. They want you working--without any gear, no gloves, no rain garments at all. They want you drenching wet. One guy that drives us out in the van felt sorry for us, because we are in the pouring rain working, and so he brought us in to keep dry. And he got in trouble for that. No sympathy.

We're treated so poorly. For one thing, we have to hang our lunch bags on the handles of the garbage cans that we push around all day. Then, as you're pushing your can and emptying it into the garbage trucks, you just have to hope your lunch doesn't get covered with garbage. And no matter what you do, your lunch always smells like garbage. It's disgusting and it's unnecessary. Why don't they just have a clean place for us to put our lunch bags while we're working?

And we're not just lifting up garbage. We are also told to pick up dead animals--even though we're not technically supposed to pick up dead animals. I saw a dead dog and left it there. It had maggots on its face. I wasn't picking that up. I didn't even tell anybody in authority that it was there. I passed by a dead squirrel and left it there, too. We also have to deal with stacked tires and stuff. And we clean out these abandoned blocks. Entire city blocks full of garbage and junk. So what happens, is now we're lifting all the time: people are getting injured, okay? There are no health and safety rules for anything. What they say do, you do. So, we already had one person die, hit by a car. We have two people with TB. My coworker two Mondays ago was hit by a car, and my other coworker was bitten by a dog and received 72 stitches and is now suing Sanitation. I was attacked by bees.

And the equipment they give us is often broken. If you have to use, like a weed-whacker, you won't get goggles. So the dog mess and glass and grass that you're chopping up sprays all over the place--you know, the debris that's coming from the weed-whacker hits you in your face.

This job is just very hazardous to our health. And there is no training for any Workfare workers at all. Like I said, all you're doing is working for your check no matter where you are placed. You come into work and they tell you what to do. I was told by my supervisor that Workfare was created to humiliate you, to give you the incentive to get off welfare. He said it wasn't made to make you comfortable so that you can have that dependency from generation from generation.

And it's so sad, because some of my coworkers are really, really hard workers. I go to them and say, "God bless you. I hope you find a job, man." Because they work so hard. They go beyond the call of duty. When they are told to go only from point A to point B, they go to C and D. And they'll extend from going to the curb to going onto the street itself to near businesses and clean the garbage that's in front there.

Also, I have coworkers with doctor's notes. They are told strictly by their doctor that they can only do light duty. But they are not given that respect by our supervisors. We have people that can't speak English, so they'll get somebody who speaks Spanish and English to interpret something for them. And I've seen the boss just walk away from these people without even trying to use the interpreter. Then we have deaf people and they are just completely mistreated.

People are very cruel. Very, very cruel. Like I said, I'm here because I was laid off. I didn't ask to get laid off. It's very, very sad. I'm just looking for a job. Hopefully, it'll be something that I'll be happy with and will get me the heck off of Workfare.

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