Are Volunteers Taking Jobs from Workers?
Dec. 26 — -- Did you volunteer to help out in shelters or food kitchens for the poor this Christmas? Do you offer your time on community projects or mentoring kids?
Volunteering is a wonderful thing. It's good for everyone. It's good for people in need; it's good for taxpayers who don't have to pay for labor on projects like neighborhood playgrounds; it's good for the volunteers, because they get to feel good about what they do.
And they should feel good. Volunteering helped build America. It's a reason presidents volunteer, and it's why they make the point about how good it is for all of us. A generation ago, President Kennedy inspired millions of Americans, when he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."
But today, volunteering is under attack.
This summer, some firemen from the Hartford, Conn., fire department were told they must stop doing volunteer work in towns that have volunteer fire departments.
Newington, Conn., town manager Paul Featherston wasn't very happy about it. "What's next?" he asked. "Are we going to say that people can't volunteer in the armed forces, uh, national reserves. … It's the beginning of the end of volunteerism."
Kevin Morton, a volunteer fireman in Rockey Hill, Conn., said, "It's quite disturbing that people are being told what they can and cannot do on their time off. "
Hartford firefighters can't volunteer, because Chief Charles Teale forbids it. Teale said,"They don't have to stop volunteering, but they have to stop volunteering — as firefighters."
Teale said safety is among his concerns. He says his men might get hurt working with volunteers — although no one has yet.
Volunteers Stealing Jobs?
But Teale's other complaint is that too that much volunteerism takes away paying jobs. "I volunteer," Teale said, "but I do so in such a way that it doesn't take anyone's job away from them."
In Teale's opinion, if someone is getting paid to do a certain job, volunteering should not be allowed for that work.
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