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<DIV>You have my permission to quote me and my wage to the politicians.
Shame on BESB for allowing this.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Joyce
Kane<BR><A
href="http://www.krafterskorner.org/">www.KraftersKorner.org</A><BR>Blindhands@AOL.com
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 6/21/2012 3:51:55 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
PRESIDENT@alumni.ecu.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Trevor:
You are an excellent philosopher.<BR><BR>Rich: I agree with you and want to
make sure you know that the number of people who really, truly, cannot be
competitively employed is much, much lower than these predatory companies like
Goodwill make it out to be. The people who really need jobs as a form of
entertainment or babysitting is very, very small.<BR><BR>Joyce: I am so sorry
to hear that you were ever employed at subminimum wages. I'm glad you
got the heck out of Dodge. Personal testimonies like yours are very
important in our fight for fair wages for all disabled workers. Would
you mind if I referenced your story and attach your name to it when I'm
talking to politicians? That's the lowest wage I've actually heard of in
Connecticut. $3.00 was the lowest Connecticut wage I'd heard of before
reading your email.<BR><BR>Justin<BR><BR>Justin M. Salisbury<BR>Class of
2012<BR>B.A. in Mathematics<BR>East Carolina
University<BR>president@alumni.ecu.edu<BR><BR>“Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only
thing that ever has.” —MARGARET
MEAD<BR>________________________________________<BR>From:
ct-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org [ct-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org] on behalf of Trevor
Attenberg [tattenberg@gmail.com]<BR>Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 12:36
PM<BR>To: 'NFB of Connecticut Mailing List'<BR>Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] Goodwill
Boycott<BR><BR>Shelter and entertainment for those without resources or
providing families are one thing. Cheap labor is another thing. It seems an
argument states work of any kind is a priceless privilege, and all people
should work, even if the pay is close to zero and cannot possibly cover any
personal expenses or lead to personal advancement. People should be happy that
they are making cheap goods and supporting the wealth of the leaders of
so-called charitable providers. Are not personal advancement and
self-sufficiency a couple of the perks to being in the labor force? The
argument in favor of sub-minimum wages for the disabled is the same that was
used against minimum wages for everyone in the first place. Namely, wages
should be based on productivity, and therefore those that are not producing
enough are not good enough for living wages; whereas the highest producers
deserve wealth and quality of life.<BR>It seems to me that if employers are
not providing a means for workers to sustain quality of life and personal
advancement, they are doing society a disservice, as they instead rely on
perpetuated dependence and poverty to sustain their own wealth. Think of the
money so-called not-for-profits like Goodwill rake in. These guys claim to be
providing support to the needy; but at the same time, they rely on
impoverished employees to sustain their business model. Rather a vicious cycle
if you ask me. Often these organizations use government funding or charitable
giving as well, therefore the public at large is supporting the wealth of
those that institute sub-standard employment opportunities. At the same time,
these employers are spending money to lobby opposition to the Fair Wages bill
the Federation is supporting.<BR>Everyone has the ability to compete, but also
everyone has the right to a decent life, especially if they’re not choosing to
throw away that life. Sub-minimum wages means poverty, and/or perpetual
reliance on government and families for monetary support. That doesn’t sound
like a good deal for anyone, save those that are profiting at the top. We’re
often taught that sweatshop labor is a condemnable practice employed by
under-developed, relatively lawless parts of the planet. So, are we going to
accept such conditions as righteous when it comes to the disabled? Remember
also that the NFB is not the only organization fighting to remove sub-minimum
wages. Many other disability organizations are doing the same—standing up for
their own livelihoods.<BR>From what I know, day care for seniors is a wee
different, but I don’t know much about it, beyond that it supposedly provides
support to seniors living at home without family or friends available to
provide necessary aid. BESB does seem to engage in a lot of wasteful or
half-hearted practices when it comes to getting clients gainfully employed or
prepped for such employment. Why was a train from Stratford to New Haven
considered unsafe? Blind people make that trip. We truly need to improve
prospective and approach to enhancing the lives of the blind and other folks
with disabilities here and around the country. Disabled people do want to
contribute to society; but they want to do so in a meaningful way; and they
don’t want to simultaneously contribute to poverty and
dependency.<BR><BR><BR>From: ct-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org
[mailto:ct-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Blindhands@aol.com<BR>Sent:
Thursday, June 21, 2012 11:06 AM<BR>To: ct-nfb@nfbnet.org<BR>Subject: Re:
[Ct-nfb] Goodwill Boycott<BR><BR>There might be a need for these places.
Such places are available for the elderly and it is called Daycare for
Seniorsor similar names and it is very pricey for folks to partake in these
places. These so called Work Shops are many times serve the same
purpose.<BR><BR>What upsets me is the fact that BESB considers to encourage
their blind clients to take jobs in these places. BESB falsely paints
these positions as permanent job places and pays the blind an above minimum
wage pay while they are in training[thru some government work program].
They spent 3 months working out how I could travel from Stratford
to New Haven independently.[after it was decided the train was not a safe
option, then Bpt transit and My Ride was the choice]. I
worked for 6 months part time receiving $11.50 per hour and after the training
period I was hired or went onto Americash pay rates which worked out to be
$1.20 per hour. Since the bus transportation cost was $12 per day
and I worked 5 hours a day and spent another average of 4 to 5 hours on
a bus or waiting for a bus, I decided after one week I could not afford
to work there.<BR><BR>I could not believe BESB supported such job placement
for a blind person.<BR><BR>Joyce
Kane<BR>www.KraftersKorner.org<http://www.krafterskorner.org/><BR>Blindhands@AOL.com<mailto:Blindhands@AOL.com><BR><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Ct-nfb
mailing
list<BR>Ct-nfb@nfbnet.org<BR>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org<BR>To
unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Ct-nfb:<BR>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/blindhands%40aol.com</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>