[humanser] Encouraging all to support this resolution

[Merry C. Schoch]

Greetings,

I would like to begin by thanking all of those who elected me as a  board 
member to the Human Services division while at the NFB convention in 
Orlando.  This note is delayed since I only returned home Monday, and 
enjoyed the R & R at  the beautiful hotel after the convention was over.  As 
a newly graduated social  worker, I have come to love working on social 
policy issues.

My first experience began when our state affiliate would travel to 
Tallahassee once per year advocating for changes in laws or implementing new 
laws that affected the blind.  My confidence in this role became evident , 
when attending "Lobby Day" with fellow social work students from across the 
state of Florida .  IN April 2011 there were more than 850 students 
representing many different groups and social issues.

I feel impelled to encourage all members of the Human Services division and 
on this listserv to support RESOLUTION 2011-17 Regarding the 
WorkforceInvestment Act Reauthorization by contacting your federal 
representatives and senators.  The resolution is below as it was sent to 
another NFB listserv

Thanks again,
Merry C. Schoch
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Freeh, Jessica (by way of David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)" 
> <JFreeh at nfb.org>
> To: <nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: <nfb-announce at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 1:50 PM
> Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] RESOLUTION 2011-17 Regarding the 
> WorkforceInvestment Act Reauthorization
>
>
>> RESOLUTION 2011-17
>> Regarding the Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization
>> Proponent:
>>
>> WHEREAS, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 
>> has distributed language for the reauthorization of the Workforce 
>> Investment Act including a proposed Section 511 of Title V (the 
>> Rehabilitation Act), which would provide for employment of people with 
>> significant disabilities at wages below the federally mandated minimum 
>> wage; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, the proposed language of Section 511 would be a tacit 
>> endorsement of the subminimum wage provision found in Section 14(c) of 
>> the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its antiquated contention that 
>> people with disabilities cannot be competitively employed; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, this language links the Rehabilitation Act, which was 
>> established to assist people with disabilities in obtaining competitive 
>> integrated employment, with Section 14(c) of the FLSA, which is based on 
>> the false premise that people with disabilities can not be competitively 
>> employed and therefore can be paid subminimum wages; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, the language in Section 511 that defines what steps a vocational 
>> rehabilitation counselor must take before steering a client into 
>> subminimum-wage employment is intended to prevent youth with disabilities 
>> from being tracked into subminimum-wage jobs, but is likely instead to 
>> track clients into subminimum-wage employment; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, language in Section 511 asserts that employers holding a 
>> certificate that allows them to pay subminimum wages can also serve as 
>> training facilities for people with disabilities, a claim that ignores 
>> the fact that job training services provided by an employer holding a 
>> special wage certificate are likely to reinforce the low expectation that 
>> workers with disabilities cannot be competitively employed, since the 
>> incentive is for the employer to continue exploiting their labor rather 
>> than prepare workers for other employment; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, the Section 511 documentation and review process, which is meant 
>> to provide safeguards against inappropriate use of subminimum-wage 
>> employment, does not take into consideration the fact that state 
>> Vocational Rehabilitation programs do not have the resources to ensure 
>> effective compliance with the various documentation and review 
>> requirements, including the six-month review period in the proposed 
>> language, creating an opportunity to expand the exploitation caused by 
>> Section 14(c) of the FLSA; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, the good intentions motivating the development of Section 511 
>> are likely to result in enormous negative consequences, especially the 
>> validation of subminimum-wage employment as a viable outcome for people 
>> with disabilities; and
>>
>> WHEREAS, the language does not provide an effective procedure for workers 
>> to challenge improper placement in such employment: Now, therefore,
>>
>> BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention 
>> assembled this seventh day of July, 2011, in the city of Orlando, 
>> Florida, that this organization call on members of the Senate Committee 
>> on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to remove Section 511 of the 
>> proposed Rehabilitation Act; and
>>
>> BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon all members of Congress, not to 
>> address the unjust law of Section 14(c) with ineffective measures, but to 
>> take direct action to abolish the reprehensible practice of 
>> subminimum-wage employment forever.
>>
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>