Pepper spray at Goodwill.

• Author: Pal, Amitabh
• Position: Peaceful protestors demanding better treatment of welfare recipients in Milwaukee, WI, are pepper-sprayed by security guards

On February 26, security guards pepper-sprayed protesters who were demanding better conditions for welfare recipients in Wisconsin's welfare to work program, called W-2.

Members of the Milwaukee chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a nationwide group for low-income people, say the activists were peacefully picketing the office of Employment Solutions, a private welfare contractor.

"There was absolutely no provocation from us and no threat to anybody's physical well-being," says Megan Dymzarov, ACORN's lead organizer.

According to Dymzarov, ACORN members met with William Martin, executive director of Employment Solutions, at the end of January to express concerns about inadequate job-training and late checks. Martin promised to look into these problems, but subsequently refused to meet with ACORN representatives.

The protesters asked Goodwill Industries, which owns Employment Solutions, to designate a contact person to meet with welfare activists. ACORN also requested that welfare recipients be provided with certification under the Job Training Partnership Act to help them obtain intensive training and good jobs.

ACORN says security guards pepper-sprayed forty-five demonstrators shortly after they entered the Goodwill Industries lobby. The guards allegedly pinned one participant to the ground and handcuffed the protest organizer, Gia Pionek. The police then arrived and arrested two ACORN members, including Pionek.

Employment Solutions issued a temporary restraining order and filed libel charges against ACORN, but later decided to drop them. The company has also dropped criminal charges against Pionek, but minor charges for disorderly conduct against the other arrested ACORN member, Lakeisha Cole...