Last update - 00:00 29/12/2006
International conference in France debates Israel's Wisconsin Plan
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
An international conference in France debated Israel's "welfare-to-work" Wisconsin Plan last week, and participants made a number of decisions regarding a fight against the program.
Among other things, a delegation of Nazareth-area program participants and representatives of worker advocacy group Saut al-Amal (Laborer's Voice) will explain the participants' situation to the International Labor Organization in Geneva.
Activists from Saut al-Amal and attorney Aouni Bana of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as well as a group of unemployed Nazareth women who consider themselves "victims" of the Wisconsin Plan, told representatives of labor unions from all over the world about the plan and its implications for the working public. The meeting discussed a campaign against the welfare-to-work program, in particular the private companies that operate it in four locations.
The Nazareth women testified about their "suffering" in the Wisconsin Program and the "exploitation and humiliation" they endured at the offices of the companies that run it."