Are Volunteers Taking Jobs from Workers?

Dec. 26 —, 2003 -- 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.

Teale's not the only person who thinks this way.

The service employees union in Beaver County, Pa., demanded to be paid for clean-up work kids did at a local park.

In San Diego, schools were so strapped for money they laid off some landscapers. After weeds grew wild in the schoolyards, parents and kids got together to do the yardwork.

"We clipped all the front of the school. We cleaned all the edges — we mowed the grass," said Mercy Graef, a grandmother of one of the district's students.

But the school landscapers' union complained that the volunteers were doing jobs that belonged to them, and they got the schoolboard to decree that volunteers like Graef can't volunteer again. Graef says she'll ignore the rule. "They can come personally and escort me off the campus while I'm cutting the grass," she said.

Nate Laney, who organized the Pennsylvania park clean-up, says he's disgusted that the union wanted to be paid for work he and his friends did.

"It wasn't fair for the whole community to have to pay for what we did. … That was our service. That was a gift and they came in and ruined that gift."

But Chief Teale argues volunteers can't just volunteer whenever they want.

"It's always been my dream to be a volunteer anchorman. And if you will just terminate your position, and allow me to do your job," he told me.

But why shouldn't he get to do that? Why shouldn't ABC get to save the money?

"Absolutely not." Teale said, "simply because — it's a detriment to you, and your family." He added, "There is no reason why you shouldn't be entitled to your salary."

Too bad for ABC.

I'm "entitled" to my salary? And volunteers should be stopped from volunteering?

Give me a break.