This is what I think, Charlie. Slave Labor by any other name is still
Slave Labor. I recall being shocked to learn that our Business
Enterprises Program had several vendors who made so little income that
they qualified for Welfare. When I inquired about this, I was told
that these vendors just wanted to feel productive, and how much they
earned did not matter to them.
As state president of the NFB of Washington, I went to each of these
blind operators and interviewed them. What I learned was that there
was not a single one of them who did not dream of a day when they
would earn a real living. But I also learned that they knew what
answers to feed to the Program Manager in order to keep their jobs and
their options open.
The solution to the abuse of blind people who are not at a competitive
point, and in some cases may never reach that place, is compromised by
our cultures worship of the Almighty Dollar. Ideally, in a People
First World, anyone being placed in a work shop or a sheltered program
would be paid a living wage.
But in cases where it becomes obvious that an individual cannot meet
the minimum production requirements, then the question is why this
person is being paid substandard wages and forced to produce anything
at all. Rather than trying to squeeze out a little production,
knowing the individual will never be gainfully employable, why not
have different programs with different goals?
What I mean is that our efforts to make a gainful employee out of a
person so severely disabled that it simply can't happen, carries a
negative impact. why do we keep pushing them? The effect on them is
to reinforce the belief that they are losers. Their lives are marked
by repeated failure, no matter how we try to dress it up.
But if we put in place a program that rewarded them for that which
they were, and what they could do for themselves, there would be a
great difference in their lives.
Of course the first protest is always, "We can't afford such
programs". Well, how about if we build a few less weapons of mass
destruction and fund these programs with that pile of money? But the
truth is that our Rulers do not care about human comfort...other than
their own.
My friend said to me, "But if we pay them all a minimum wage, we can't
afford to keep all of them working. Would you want to be the one to
have to send some of them home to just sit in their rooms?"
I argue that we must pay a living wage to anyone we put to work. If
half the employees must be laid off, then so be it. But that is only
the beginning. Those workers who have been let go need to be given
direction in organizing and demanding to be protected by their
government. And that means that we who have been successful in
negotiating our own work successes, need to offer our volunteer
services to build up this invisible
minority.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/20/15, Charles Crawford <CCrawford@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Joe, Penny, Carl, and all,
This is a very interesting story. I think there needs to be a better
response to the employers who claim that the lower wages need to be paid
until the folks can get to a productivity level where they are competitive
with other workers. The basic response that it is not fair and against the
equity of all workers, avoids the dynamic of lower productivity getting a
lower wage. I certainly believe that folks should be paid the minimum wage
in as long as they can be shown to be similarly situated as other workers
earning the minimum, however I would think that they need to call it a
training program or whatever with a stipend if they are not going to
receive
minimum wage. Even in that scenario, there does need to be a plan to get
the person to competitive employment within a reasonable period of time.
What do you think?
Charlie Crawford.
From: joe harcz Comcast [mailto:joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 20 September 2015 10:14
To: Penny Reeder
Cc: Carl Jarvis; Charles Crawford
Subject: Fw: free press story came out thursday
----- Original Message -----
From: joe harcz Comcast <mailto:joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Elizabeth Picciuto <mailto:epicciuto@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2015 7:26 PM
Subject: free press story came out thursday
$2 an hour for disabled workers? Protest planned today
Employers say some disabled people couldn't get jobs unless they are paid
less than the minimum wage; opponents say the practice is exploitation.
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$2 an hour for disabled workers? Protest planned today
Employers say some disabled people couldn't get jobs unless they are paid
less than the minimum wage; opponents say the practice is exploitation.
Check out this story on Freep.com: http://on.freep.com/1KhEfCx
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$2 an hour for disabled workers? Protest planned today
Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau 12:04 a.m. EDT September 17,
2015
Demonstrations by disability rights activists are planned at today's ADA
anniversary celebration at the Capitol.
635780198074952277-Tom-OlinBuy Photo
Tom Olin(Photo: Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
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LANSING -- Disability rights activists say they will protest at an
Americans
with Disabilities Act celebration at the Capitol today because some
sponsors
of the event pay certain workers with disabilities less than the minimum
wage and because the Capitol itself is not fully ADA-compliant.
The activists say the practice of paying certain disabled people less than
the minimum wage is exploitative and goes against the principle that people
with
disabilities should be integrated as equal members of society at large.
But defenders of the practice say such jobs are a learning experience for
severely disabled people who wouldn't otherwise be able to work but benefit
by
contributing to society and through the social interaction of the
workplace.
Peckham, Inc., a Lansing nonprofit that hires and trains disabled people to
manufacture and package products for the federal government and private
employers,
is among the sponsors of the event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Some of Peckharm's workers earn only about
$2 an hour under an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act that allows
Peckham and similar employers to pay them less than the minimum wage.
Another
sponsor is MARO -- Removing Barriers to Community Access, an association
which includes employers who pay disabled people less than the minimum
wage.
The wage issue, the sponsors, and the fact the Capitol Building where the
celebration is planned is still not fully ADA-compliant, is drawing
disability
rights demonstrators from across Michigan and a few from outside the state.
"Many Michiganders with disabilities were shocked to learn that the very
sponsors of the rally to celebrate the disability community's most
important
civil
right law were the perpetrators of sub-minimum wages, a practice that
inhibits equal employment opportunities to Michiganders with disabilities,"
disability
rights activists Susan Fitzmaurice of West Bloomfield and Eleanor Canter of
Muskegon said in a news release.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by President George
H.W. Bush in 1990, prohibits discrimination based on disability, imposes
accessibility
requirements on public facilities and requires covered employers to
reasonably accommodate employees with disabilities.
The practice of paying certain people with disabilities less than the
minimum wage is not unique to Michigan. It's estimated about 400,000 people
with disabilities
across the nation are paid less than the minimum wage. But the activists
say
Michigan stands out because many of the employers who pay sub-minimum wage
to the disabled, such as Peckham and MARO, have leadership roles in
organizations and events that are supposed to advocate for or celebrate
disability
rights.
Kelly Buckland, executive director of the National Council on Independent
Living in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday he was to be the keynote speaker
at
today's event, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.. on the Capitol lawn, but he
canceled over the wage and sponsorship issue.
Tom Olin, director of the Road to Freedom Bus Tour promoting rights for
people with disabilities, initially canceled his appearance at the
anniversary celebration,
but later said he would bring the bus to Lansing in support of the
protesters.
"There are people still making money off of people with disabilities," Olin
told the Free Press Wednesday.
Mitchell Tomlinson, the CEO of Peckham, said Wednesday that 84 of Peckham's
roughly 1,700 employees are paid below the minimum wage, receiving in some
cases
between about $1.84 and $5.52 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25
per
hour and the Michigan minimum wage is $8.15 per hour.
He said the special wages are paid only to workers referred to Peckham by
local community mental health agencies. The lower wage is a productivity
issue
and the workers who are paid it would otherwise be unemployable, he said.
He said they want to work and benefit from it as a form of training that
also improves their social skills. Most of the workers who receive less
than
minimum
wage are packaging items related to contracts with private employers and
work limited hours that supplements the Social Security income they
receive,
he
said.
"All of them have informed choice," Tomlinson said. "It's not like they're
being forced to work here."
In 2012, the most recent year for which federal income tax returns for
Peckham are available, Tomlinson received base pay of $312,556, a bonus of
$100,000,
other reportable compensation of $19,259, and retirement and other deferred
compensation of $72,950, for a total compensation of more than $500,000,
records
show.
Asked twice if he had any qualms about receiving that level of compensation
while paying workers with disabilities as little as $2 an hour, Tomlinson
did
not respond.
But Greta Wu, senior vice president of human services at Peckham, who also
participated in the interview, said it's not a fair comparison because the
workers
who are receiving less than minimum wage are in a program that is more
educational than competitive employment.
Buckland said the arguments made by Tomlinson are commonly made by
employers
who pay less than minimum wage to people with disabilities.
"The whole claim that working for pennies an hour is better than no work at
all is not good enough for the rest of the public and I'm not sure why
people
think it's good enough for the disabled," Buckland said.
Another issue cited by protesters is that the Capitol, which was dedicated
in 1879 and extensively renovated between 1990 and 1992, is not fully
compliant
with the ADA. It lacks Braille signage and the front steps of the Capitol,
typically used by speakers at public demonstrations, are not accessible to
people
in wheelchairs.
Fitzmaurice said it's not that there isn't much to celebrate about the ADA,
but it's inappropriate to hold an ADA celebration around a building that is
not compliant and problems at the Capitol and other state buildings show
Michigan government has not made ADA compliance a priority.
Dan Brocklehurst, Capitol facilities director, said the restrooms in the
Capitol have Braille signage and the installation of other Braille signs is
in
the works. It's very difficult to make the front steps of the Capitol
accessible to people in wheelchairs, he said.
"There's no easy solution due to the historic nature of the building," he
said.
The main organizer of today's ADA anniversary celebration at the Capitol is
Disability Network/Michigan. Its CEO, Sara Grivetti, issued a statement
late
Wednesday that said the organization "does not support the continued use of
paying sub-minimum wages to people with disabilities."
Todd Culver, executive director of MARO, said on the wage issue that
"though
the optimal goal shall be competitive, integrated employment, intermediate
steps and services may be needed to assist people along their path to that
desired outcome," and "this provision in the law creates employment
opportunities
that might not otherwise exist for individuals with significant
disabilities."
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on
Twitter @paulegan4.
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Source:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/2015/09/16/2-hour-disabled-workers-protest-p
lanned-today/32505239/
