[Home-on-the-range] Fw: [Nfbnet-members-list] Fwd: National Federation of the Blind Responds to Goodwill Statement on Subminimum Wages
Emily Schlenker
eschlenker at cox.net
Tue Jun 12 18:54:20 UTC 2012
From: David Andrews
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 11:27 PM
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] Fwd: National Federation of the Blind Responds to Goodwill Statement on Subminimum Wages
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
cdanielsen at nfb.org
National Federation of the Blind Responds to
Goodwill Statement on Subminimum Wages
Baltimore, Maryland (June 11, 2012): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) today responded to a statement issued by Goodwill Industries International, Inc., regarding its payment of subminimum wages to workers with disabilities.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: Goodwill frames its opposition to fair wages for workers with disabilities in terms of choice. Goodwill wants the publicand in particular its own employees with disabilitiesto believe that the only choice that Americans with disabilities have is between receiving subminimum wages or receiving no wages at all. This is a false choice based on inaccurate and self-serving propaganda put out by Goodwill and other subminimum-wage exploiters. The reality is that workers with disabilities are not limited to the false choice presented by the industry that exploits them. Workers with even the most severe disabilities can and do engage in competitive employment every day. The way to lower the high unemployment rate among workers with disabilities is to enhance and expand existing programsand to create new onesthat help them to find and maintain competitive employment, not to exploit them in subminimum-wage sweatshops. These sweatshops proclaim by their policies and behavior to the public, to other employers, and to the employees themselves that the workers arent good enough to be regular employees earning real wages in regular business. Disabled Americans reject this false and misleading representation.
Goodwill issued its statement in response to an inquiry from WUSA, the CBS television affiliate in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Washington, D.C. WUSA made the inquiry in its report on the NFBs call for a boycott of Goodwill Industries, which was issued last week after repeated attempts to meet with Goodwill officials. NFB representatives were interviewed on camera and, along with the WUSA reporter, sought to speak with Goodwills president and chief executive officer, but Goodwill declined a meeting or to be interviewed on camera.
###
About the National Federation of the Blind
With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind peoples lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Nfbnet-members-list mailing list
Nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/home-on-the-range_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120612/b4b13b72/attachment.html>
More information about the Home-on-the-Range
mailing list