[Mdabs] FW: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] Please Sign and Circulate the Petition to Support Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities

Thu Mar 21 14:40:42 UTC 2013

I'm sure this email will be making the rounds, but I believe it is better to
receive it more than once instead of not at all!
Please take five minutes of your time to sign the petition for fair wages.
This is one of the most important issues on which the NFB is working. Also,
please spread the word! Millions of Americans do not know it is legal to pay
people with disabilities less than the minimum wage. Most of the time, when
people find out that this practice is legal, they are horrified and want to
do something to help stop it. So, please do your part to educate your family
and friends about this issue. Please post a link for this petition on
Twitter and Facebook. Email it to family and friends who do not have
Facebook or Twitter. The more signatures we have, the better chance we will
have of passing our bill to stop this discriminatory practice.
The time is now to take action! I did. Will you?
Melissa

-----Original Message-----
From: State-affiliate-leadership-list
[mailto:state-affiliate-leadership-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Lewis, Anil
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:19 AM
To: Lewis, Anil
Subject: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] Please Sign and Circulate the
Petition to Support Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities

Petition to Support Fair Wages
for Workers with Disabilities 

www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition

We, the undersigned, are Americans with disabilities who are adversely
affected by subminimum wage payments to workers with disabilities;
representatives of organizations made up of, and working on behalf of,
Americans with disabilities; friends and family members of individuals who
have disabilities; and other concerned citizens who believe in fairness and
equality.  We all speak in support of the repeal of Section 14(c) of the
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which authorizes Special Wage Certificates
that permit employers to pay workers with disabilities subminimum wages,
some as low as 3 cents per hour.

We reject the low expectations for, the false view of the true capacity of,
and the misguided compassion used to justify this discrimination against
workers with disabilities.  This provision has existed for over seventy
years, and rather than creating real employment opportunities for workers
with disabilities, it has relegated hundreds of thousands of people with
disabilities to segregated, subminimum wage work environments, perpetuated
the misconception that workers with disabilities do not have the capacity
for productive employment, and masked the need for further development and
implementation of innovative employment strategies for the competitive
integrated employment of people with disabilities.

We all believe that the future prospects for workers with disabilities are
limited only by the spirit, ambition, and imagination of Americans with
disabilities, and by the willingness of society to expand and implement
enlightened policies that will help them succeed.  We adamantly assert that
as long as workers with disabilities are denied the same workforce
protections as every other American citizen, and the solution to the
employment dilemma of workers with disabilities is thought to be their
continued segregation in subminimum-wage work environments, our society will
never truly implement the innovative employment strategies that empower
workers with disabilities to fully participate in the workforce.

For these reasons, we, the undersigned, urge the repeal of Section 14(c) of
the Fair Labor Standards Act in order to abolish the unfair, discriminatory,
immoral practice of paying workers with disabilities subminimum wages; to
reverse over seventy years of mistaken institutionalized thinking about the
employment capacity of people with disabilities; and to incentivize the
development, implementation, and use of innovative strategies for their
competitive, integrated employment.

To sign the petition, visit www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition
<http://www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition>  

Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.

Director of Advocacy and Policy

"Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities" 

http://www.nfb.org/fairwages

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland   21230

(410) 659-9314 ext. 2374 (Voice)

(410) 685-5653 (FAX)

Email: alewis at nfb.org

Web: www.nfb.org

twitter: @anillife 

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