 POWER holds a unique place within the rich history of the struggle to end poverty and oppression in San Francisco. POWER was initiated as a welfare rights project of the Coalition on Homelessness, and went by the name of the General Assistance Recipients Union (GARU). However, with the intensification of the attacks on all no- and low-wage workers (the unemployed, welfare recipients, low-wage workers and the working class in general) under welfare deform in 1996, the need for a broad organization of no- and low-wage fighting to end all exploitation and oppression became even more clear.
In the four years that have passed since welfare deform went into effect, tens of thousands of welfare recipients have been forced into the workplace outside the home- or else face the horrors of being losing their only source of income. Despite the rhetoric covering newspaper headlines insisting that workfare is solving the problems of poverty and contributing to a growing workforce, welfare deform has had a perilous impact on thousands of welfare recipients. However, welfare deform is not just an attack on welfare recipients; it is also an attack on all low-wage workers. Across the country, government agencies and large corporations are using Workfare Workers as a wedge to maximize their profits as they drive down the working conditions and standards for all low-wage workers.
POWER became an independent organization in May 1997 with the express mission of developing the leadership of no- and low-wage workers to spearhead the fight for economic and social justice. It is our organizational belief that: united and organized, low-wage workers will be able to eliminate all systems of exploitation and oppression based on class, race, gender and sexual orientation.
 Through years of developing worker-leaders and running strategic campaigns, POWER has grown significantly to become a force in the Bay Area and within the larger Movement for peace and justice. Most importantly, POWER has developed the strategic and technical skills of no- and low-wage workers that are necessary to take leadership of the organization as well as the broader Movement. Now, no- and low-wage workers themselves are speaking on their on behalf. But POWER’s success has been felt in the community too. In less than four years, POWER won numerous victories, including:
 • Winning free public transportation for all of San Francisco’s Workfare Workers.
• Halted a plan to senselessly rotate Workfare Workers between different City agencies every three months.
• Winning of the recognition of Workfare Workers as legal workers from the California Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration.
• Gaining of access to on-site restrooms and lunchrooms which were previously off-limits to Workfare Workers.
• Stopping the attempted privatization of the distribution of welfare benefits.
• Creation of a city-funded Workfare Ombudsperson staff position, which is mandated to investigate and mediate worksite conflicts.
• Forced San Francisco to create 850 jobs for San Francisco’s Workfare Workers as part of the Living Wage Agreement. This victory also guaranteed that the number of hours to be performed by those people still doing workfare will be reduced to eight (8) hours per week, down from thirteen (13).
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