Under Federal law, welfare beneficiaries in workfare programs are not entitled to bargain as a group with an employer.

However, the deal they worked out would have cut all aid to childless welfare beneficiaries, worth about $18 million.

The Wisconsin system limits the amount of time people can remain on welfare and aggressively pushes welfare beneficiaries into jobs and education.

Jobs are scarce in the inner cities and rural communities where welfare beneficiaries generally live.

The Governor said he believed that the state could help as many as 30 percent of welfare beneficiaries find jobs in the private sector.

He has, as well, promised additional job training funds and offered a plan to allow welfare beneficiaries to keep some cash benefits even as they join the workforce.

People who are now welfare beneficiaries are likely to be at the end of any job queue.

The difficulty is that jobs are scarce in the inner cities and rural communities where welfare beneficiaries generally live.

If they are going to be cut off from public assistance, there is little incentive for welfare beneficiaries to take low-paying jobs.

In 1995 North Carolina received waivers from the Clinton Administration allowing it to require welfare beneficiaries to undergo job training.