What about the Apostle Islands, Victor Berger, Frank Zeidler, the Violent Femmes, Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, Frank Lloyd Wright, Les Paul, Robert La Follette, William Defoe, Harley Davidson, Green Bay Packers (only publically owned NFL team), etc?....god, I would even be happy if the Israelis could mention Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, Miller Beer or Golda Meir.
Anyway...
"The experimental project [...] is to be run by foreign companies with experience in running similar programs overseas. These companies will have to join Israeli companies familiar with the local labor market. However, a number of Israeli personnel companies, including Manpower, are campaigning intensively to be able to bid for the tender instead of the foreign companies."
It is interesting that the article refers to Manpower as an Israeli company considering its corporate headquarters is in Milwaukee...Wisconsin.
The debate here isn't over whether it is right to privatize/end welfare, but whether the profits from decimating welfared should be funneled to local or international capital.
Bryan --------------------------------- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=36558 1
Israeli employment agencies want stake in Wisconsin plan
By Ruth Sinai
The cabinet's controversial Wisconsin plan to reduce the number of welfare recipients is drawing fire from both employment agencies and the Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee. The plan is included in the 2004 Economic Arrangements' Bill, which is slated for debate in the Knesset Finance Committee next week.
The experimental project, which has been delayed several times in the past, is to be run by foreign companies with experience in running similar programs overseas. These companies will have to join Israeli companies familiar with the local labor market.
However, a number of Israeli personnel companies, including Manpower, are campaigning intensively to be able to bid for the tender instead of the foreign companies.
"Some Israeli companies have acquired a lot of know-how in operating employment centers and job placement for new immigrants. We've studied how this is done abroad and we think we should be allowed to lead the project. We could buy know-how and consultation abroad, instead of being sub-contractors for foreign companies," says Aryeh Sivan, CEO of Yeud, a company that operates two employment centers for the Absorption Ministry and has already set up a special team to manage the Wisconsin plan. (Related story, page 3)
The controversial plan is to be applied to 14,500 unemployed people, mostly single mothers of children over two years old, divorced women who receive child support payments from the National Insurance Institute, and those considered unemployable or who could not find work for more than two years. People who refuse to take part will be deprived of state allocations.
During the experiment, a mentor will help each participant build a personal program. Some will be sent to professional training, while others will get help in searching for jobs. Those who cannot find work will be forced to engage in community service work.
The tender for the franchise owners was due to be issued in September, but has been postponed twice since then. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was enthusiastic about the idea in 1998, when he was prime minister, and decided in August 2001 to adopt it, but it was dropped from the Economic Arrangements Bill at the last moment. In 2002, the cabinet decided twice to implement it, but did not do so.
The Knesset's Labor and Social Affairs Committee yesterday also objected to handing the project to foreign companies and urged the treasury to amend the bill in this matter. The panel slammed the treasury's proposal that excludes the Employment Service from taking part in the project.
The Finance Ministry's representative in the debate said the Employment Service would not take part in the experiment, but the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry yesterday announced that the Employment Service will operate a fifth employment center that will serve as a control group for the experiment.
Despite the treasury's position, the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry intends to "issue a tender to set up four experiment areas operated by foreign and Israeli companies as soon as possible."
Further controversies were raised yesterday over the treasury's decision to base the operators' profits on the number of unemployed persons they find jobs for, or on the sum of money they save in unemployment allocations.
The committee members objected to including women on child support in the project, noting that child support is allocated by the courts for the couple's children and the fact that the man refuses to pay and the woman has to get the money from NII does not mean the women have to look for a job as a condition for getting the money.