Organizing temps.

• Author: Nixon, Ron
• Position: Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment's efforts on behalf of temporary employees - Brief Article

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...