31.   Some union leaders contend that the workfare program violates a state law barring public employers from replacing regular workers with workfare participants.

32.   The Assembly Democrats and their labor-union allies want workfare participants to be able to join unions, which could lead to negotiating working conditions and compensation.

33.   The city, on the other hand, has an agreement with its unions that workfare participants will never fill jobs formerly held by unionized workers.

34.   The county does not know what becomes of workfare participants after they leave Home Relief.

35.   The Giuliani administration has repeatedly defended using workfare participants.

36.   The governors say workfare participants are being trained for work and are not employees in the usual sense.

37.   The mayor and his aides say workfare participants should be viewed as a pool of low-cost laborers available to perform services that might otherwise not get done.

38.   The mayor, he asserted, is violating a state law that bars communities from using workfare participants to displace city workers.

39.   The hope is that as jobs become available within various agencies, workfare participants, already familiar with the job, would have an edge in hiring.

40.   The House version of the budget bill sets a limit on the number of hours that a workfare participant may be required to work.