We received the following article from a correspondent, R. Cuffy, who identified himself as a caseworker.
April 9, 2011
The death of Marchella Pierce is a tragedy. According to the investigation into the child’s death, she weighed only 18 pounds at the time of her death. Brooklyn’s District Attorney Charles Hynes has not only charged the child’s mother with homicide but has also charged the child’s grandmother Loretta Brett, who resided in the same home as Marchella and her mother, as well as former caseworker Damon Adams and his former supervisor Chereece Bell. They are all charged with criminally negligent homicide. The charges against the caseworkers are an unprecedented step in New York that deserves careful attention.
Some people say that the District Attorney is scapegoating the worker and supervisor in a not-too-veiled attempt at a political future. While there are certainly political ambitions at play behind the charges, to fully understand the motivation we need to take a deeper look at the system. The union that represents the indicted workers, Social Service Employees Union Local 371, has taken pains to point out how overworked, underpaid and underappreciated the workers at the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) are. At a protest organized on April 6th outside of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, placards made and distributed by the union pointed out that budget cuts hurt children. Not only is the budget crisis to blame for the state of affairs at ACS, but the economic recession gripping the USA is hugely important to understanding current developments.
Everyone in NYC’s poor and working class neighborhood knows that to get a civil service job guarantees a certain level of economic stability, which is why when someone gets a job with the city they tend to stay at that job, or transfer to another city job until retirement. At ACS, with a starting salary of $39,000/year for Child Protective Specialists (the civil service title of caseworkers) who receive benefits that are comparable to that of many civil service titles, there is the high turn over rate of staff associated with most child welfare agencies across the country. With the recession gripping the city the rate of workers quitting has slowed down,due to the lack of availability of other jobs. Nonetheless staff retention has been an issue for the city.
While fewer workers have quit, using the economic recession as their reasoning, management of the agency and their overseers in the Mayor’s office have begun to institute a policy of attrition; so in 2009 those workers who quit or were laid off because they were hired provisionally and could not pass the required civil service test to be certified in their titles have not been replaced. Thus there are fewer workers to handle a rising caseload. Every tragedy in the agency that is highlighted in the media leads to a higher number of suspected cases of neglect and abuse coming into the agency, and ever since the Nixzmary Brown tragedy in 2007, there seems to have been a tragedy often enough to keep pushing the caseloads higher and higher.
More cases and less workers is the order of the day. Any pretense made by the Mayor and other city leaders that they care about the children is laid bare by the fact that they put a hiring freeze in place for over a year, while letting go workers and promoting some workers from the caseworker position to the caseworker supervisor position. In this workers’ office, some workers were replaced but only with workers from the Family Preservation Program, the budget of which was severely cut. The outcome is that the families most in need have less resources available to them and the city was perfectly happy to sacrifice the FPP program’s availability to needy families to fill slots that they created by laying off workers.
Workers are basically being asked to do more with less. This leads to frustrations on the part of the caseworkers and their supervisors (who are also members of SSEU 371). Workers at the agency perform home visits, school visits, are expected to check with children’s pediatricians that their medical needs are met, remove children from their homes when the circumstances warrant it, have safety conferences and document all their casework activities in a timely manner, which is currently defined as within 7 days. For many workers, this means working late without pay to catch up on documentation only to then leave to make visits to ensure compliance with the agency’s policy of bi-weekly face to face contacts with children on all cases. Many workers even work through their lunch hours to make the many deadlines they face, which is why it is particularly appalling that in the wake of the arrests and indictments of Ms. Bell and Mr. Adams the leadership of the agency is turning a cold shoulder to the indicted workers. One worker gave a chilling example of the lack of support the agency is showing the indicted worker and supervisor by contrasting Commissioner Mattingly’s middling statements with the staunch defense NYC’s Police Commissioner Ray Kelly normally gives to police officers accused of wrong doing, like the officers who brutally shot and killed Sean Bell.
On one hand caseworkers are now asked to do their job with the possibility of indictment hanging over their heads if they are not able to complete the myriad tasks assigned to them, while on the other hand they face an unsupportive management team kowtowing to and executing the plan of the city’s political leaders that has led to cuts in resources available to the workers in making assessments and providing families with the needed services that could lessen the likelihood of abuse and neglect. In fact, only in the wake of the tragedy of Marchella’s death and the indictments has the city decided to stay cuts proposed to the agency’s preventive programs (the city’s closing of a preventive agency in the Marchella Pierce case had led to the case being reassigned to Mr. Damon.)
No one questions the necessity of child welfare agencies but they were not always around in the USA and still do not exist in many parts of the world. How did the agencies come to be, and more importantly, what causes the problems that necessitated the advent of child welfare agencies? No real solutions have been found for the problems that child welfare agencies address, despite decades of study. Because of this, child welfare agencies are predominantly reactive to incidents of abuse and neglect rather than proactive.
What really lies at the base of the problems of abuse and neglect is the capitalist society we live in and the institution assigned the role of raising children, the family. In a society where profit takes precedence over the needs of the masses of workers and poor, all that is expected is that children are raised to be obedient workers to keep the wheels of industry and commerce turning. Additionally, capitalist society relies on the super-exploitation and oppression of certain sections of the masses to maintain peace and order. Historically in America, the Black population has been targeted to serve as under-paid unskilled labor, and to receive high rates of unemployment and discrimination. Today American capitalism is also targeting Latinos, immigrants and religious minorities like Muslims. It is no coincidence that at ACS the majority of clients investigated for abuse and neglect are those of Black and Latino ethnicity and recent immigrants to the country, especially those from Latin American countries.
The demographic make up of caseworkers does not differ much from that of the population we serve. The majority of workers are women of color and the majority of clients are women of color; nonetheless, the nature of the client-worker relationship leads to conflict between the two. While child welfare agencies do perform the socially necessary function of protecting children from neglect and abuse, workers do also act to reinforce the role of the state in subduing the resistance of the masses. Family Courts technically act as arbiters between the rights of the parents and child welfare agencies when agreements cannot be made between the two about what is in the interest of a child.
But because child welfare agencies have the power of the state behind them nine of out ten times the agency wins.
From their first contacts with families, ACS caseworkers are encouraged to be dishonest with clients as to their rights. While there has been a lot of rhetoric in the agency about “empowering” clients, the agency neglects to say explicitly that what it requests of the caseworkers is only accomplished through sheer dishonesty. The authority of the agency means a lot and, when a worker identifies him or herself to a client and asks to speak with that client, a worker does not also tell the client that they have a right not to cooperate with the agency, not to engage in conversation with the agency, not to let the agency into their homes, not to submit to drug tests and not to make their children available for interview – unless the agency has an order from family court saying that the family is mandated to do those things. Just imagine if the tens of thousands of cases that ACS handles every year, if all of them were referred to family court for orders of entry and production of children. The system would not work. Right now, without familes asserting their rights, the system functions, it suffices to say that the system functions based on the trampling of clients’ rights, and therein lies the conflict between worker and client.
How do concerned workers fight back? The most pressing demand at this time is to organize a defense of Ms. Bell and Mr. Adams. SSEU 371 has so far organized walk-outs (pickets outside at lunch) on March 25th at the local field offices, a rally and demonstration outside the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office which brought out a strong showing of about 700 workers, and plans for a demonstration and hopes to pack the court room in a show of support later in April on the indicted worker’s next court date. A collection has also been taken up to assist with legal fees. The mood amongst the workers is that it could have been any of us indicted because we are all asked to do too much on a daily basis.
While there is a sense of anger at the indictments there is also low morale among the work force, especially in light of the fact that management has not come out to defend the workers but has left them hanging to dry. On the day the indictments came down the Commissioner sent an email to all staff saying that he supported all workers that did their job. But he indicated that there was evidence that Mr. Adams and Ms. Bell did not do their jobs, in other words saying he did not support Mr. Adams and Ms. Bell.
Many workers come into the agency with lofty ideals of helping children and while many, like the author, have come to understand that the agency is sometimes the cause of unnecessarily breaking up families, we still have faith in the agency’s mission to protect children. The indictments are slowly but surely undermining workers’ faith in the agency as they feel that as they go about their job that there is no protection for them.
What then is to be done? If the indictments are to be thrown out and Mr. Adams and Ms. Bell are to walk free, then ACS workers and others in SSEU 371 will need to ally with the rest of NYC’s work place. The indictments are an attack not only on ACS workers but all workers in the city. Every victory the courts have over workers opens the door for further attacks. However, rallying the city’s working class behind the accused ACS staff is not going to be an easy task. The biggest challenge is the fact that many working families rightly see ACS as an enemy and unfortunately are reticent to join in the fight. This is not an insurmountable burden, but unprecedented steps need to be taken to put caseworkers and the families they serve in alliance with each other. The union can work to empower clients by informing them of their rights when interacting with the agency so workers are seen more as equals doing their job, rather than enemies attacking the family. The previously described scenario of a court system overburdened because families are standing up for their rights can become a reality if both workers and families want to fight against the injustice of ACS.
Another important step in a fight back is to link with other unions to stop budget cuts of services to families citywide, cuts to resources for workers, healthcare and pension cuts and all layoffs. These are issues affecting not just workers in the city, but around the country and around the world. Inspiration can be taken from the fight of public sector and unionized workers in Wisconsin to maintaining their collective bargaining rights and stave layoffs, as well as the rebellion of the Egyptian masses against the Mubarak regime. An instructive lesson than can be taken from the recent struggle in Wisconsin is the role Democratic politicians played in keeping the workers fight in check, conceding to the demands of the Republicans and tellingly demanding concessions from the workers themselves. Members of SSEU 371 must question any leadership of the union that takes the members dues and invests it into the election of any Democratic politicians. Most workers rightly see the Republicans as against their interests but unfortunately see the Democrats as an alternative. The union leadership has historically and currently played a pivotal role in promoting one pro-capitalist party as an alternative to the other.
SSEU 371 is currently in a pivotal moment. Led for over two decades by the recently deceased Charles Ensley who stepped down 3 years ago the union has since been led by Faye Moore. Before his death Ensley wrote a much debated letter dated June 1, 2010 saying that “Sadly, I believe the current President has not lived up to the task of leading the union successfully at a time when bold leadership is especially needed.” Ensley went on to endorse Anthony Wells, who is running on the Members United Slate for election, while Faye Moore is running on the MOORE for the Members Slate. Both slates have put forward programs urging militant fight backs against proposed cuts. While the membership seems to feel that Moore has done an able job, there has not been much interest in the politics of the union, as the low turn out during the last election shows. The anger against the recent indictments has injected the current election with a sense of importance. Seeing a difference between the two slates, besides Members United having the backing of Ensley and MOORE for the MEMBERS being the incumbent, is hard. During a stop at the Linden Blvd ACS office, Ms. Moore indicated that it is time for the union to reap the rewards of the investment the union has made in the campaigns of many City Council members. Members United has charged that Ms. Moore has not done enough to fight against layoffs while Ms. Moore and her slate retaliates highlighting the work they did in lobbying the city council. But more than politics and policies, the current election seems to be about personality. With the majority of the union’s executive board defecting to the Members United slate at the nominations meeting on March 7, it seems Ms. Moore faces an uphill battle as she has been unable to fill the shoes of the late Mr. Ensley and Mr. Wells has positioned himself as the person to fill Ensley’s shoes.
SSEU has a great legacy of militancy and the leadership has always been an advocate of the rank-and-file and, unlike many unions in the city, union officials, including the president and vice-presidents are only paid the amount due to them from their civil service titles. To take the unions struggle beyond militancy and personality politics being put forward as an alternative by Members United, the ranks of the unions needed to build a leadership that is willing to see workers unite with families and to see the struggle against the indictments of Mr. Adams and Ms. Bell extend into a struggle against all lay offs and cuts.
Much can be done to improve the working conditions of the membership and every member should be dedicated to achieving those goals, but we must not be blinded by thinking that we can fully reform that system that causes our poor working conditions, attacks on the services of the most vulnerable population and the recent indictments. Capitalism is the problem, Democrats and Republicans are its politicians, Members United and MOORE for the Members are their middle men.
The far right has been accusing President Obama of being a socialist. But far from improving the condition of the masses of Americans as many hoped when they elected him Obama has proposed cuts to jobs and services thereby attacking the masses. Real socialism means a society run in the interests of the needs of the masses, not the profits of the few. The ranks need to prepare their own leaders to build their own legacy to challenge not just incumbent leadership, but leadership beholden to the Democratic Party and capitalist society.