Organizing temps.

Greenville, South Carolina 

What's the largest employer in the United States? Try Manpower Services, a temporary-employment agency.

The growth of Manpower coincides with the rapid increase in temporary workers nationwide. A recent Time magazine article predicts that, by the year 2000, more than half the work force could be temporary employees. Yet major unions have not made organizing temps a priority--even though companies increasingly turn to temporary workers to avoid paying full-time wages and benefits.

The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment, a statewide grassroots group based in Greenville, South Carolina, is working to fill this void.

The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment began working on temp employment in 1984, says lead organizer Charles Taylor. That year, a company relocating to Greenville laid off 100 permanent workers and hired temps to replace them. At the same time, the company applied for an $8.4 million industrial bond. The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment organized to pressure the company by working to tie the bond award to job-protection. Although the group failed to stop the bond, it built a lasting organization and made some gains for workers' rights at the company.

Currently, the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment is working on what it calls the Temp Test Project. The project sends workers to agencies for assignments. Then temps report back. Using this data, the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment found widespread violations among temp agencies in Greenville. Thirty-one of the thirty-two temp agencies in the city were violating a South Carolina state law that requires new workers be notified in writing about the amount of pay they will receive. The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment also found that three-fourths of workers were asked medical questions prior to an offer of a job, a practice that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment conducted the test with seven other temp agencies in four other cities. None of the agencies were providing wage information. Five were violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. As a result, the Alliance filed a lawsuit with the State Department of Labor. "The Labor Department warned three of the seven agencies," Taylor said.

The lawsuit is still pending. And the group is planning to file additional lawsuits with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. "This is a serious problem," said Taylor. "We're talking about a fundamental restructuring of the economy"

For more information, contact the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment at [phone], or write 1 Chick Springs Road, Suite 110-B, Greenville, SC 29609.