[Nfb_of_georgia] Fwd: [Nfb-legislative-directors] Goodwill Petition Delivery Press Release

[Stancil Tootle]

Stancil Tootle  2nd Vice-President, 
Legislative Chairman.  GA, Newsline Rep
National Federation of the Blind of Georgia
315 W. Ponce De Leon Ave.
Suite 1020
Decatur, GA 30030
Office: (404) 371-1000 ext. 39
Fax: (404) 371-1002
Cell: (229) 254-6630
Email:stootle at nfbga.org

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Lewis, Anil" <ALewis at nfb.org>
> Date: October 30, 2013, 4:56:11 PM EDT
> To: "Affiliate Presidents (state-affiliate-leadership-list at nfbnet.org)" <state-affiliate-leadership-list at nfbnet.org>, "'nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org'" <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [Nfb-legislative-directors] Goodwill Petition Delivery Press Release
> Reply-To: NFB Legislative Directors List <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>
> 
> Also attached:
>  
>  
> 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 to Unmask 
> Goodwill’s Exploitation of Workers with Disabilities
> NFB Members to Educate Donors about 
> Goodwill’s Discrimination Against Workers with Disabilities
>  
> Baltimore, Maryland (October 31, 2013): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest organization of blind people in the United States, announced that it will hold a public awareness event today regarding Goodwill Industries International’s payment of wages as low as pennies per hour to workers with disabilities.  Members of the NFB will deliver copies of a recent Change.org petition to various Goodwill headquarters across the country.  The petition garnered 170,000 signatures from Americans who demand that Goodwill pay its workers with disabilities a real wage.
>  
> Goodwill is one of the many nonprofit organizations that takes advantage of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an obscure provision that permits employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.  For over seventy years, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act has allowed employers to obtain special wage certificates that permit them to pay their workers with disabilities wages far less than the federal minimum.
> Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, in his banquet speech delivered at the 2013 NFB National Convention, said: “Our benevolent superiors (self-appointed, self-governing, self-important, self-willed) have determined that a wage structure in our country that offers to pay us less than the federally guaranteed minimum wage available to everybody else has been established for our own good…They tell us that our lives have been improved through this system of government-authorized discrimination, while they collect their six- and seven-figure compensation packages.”
> Congressman Gregg Harper (R-MS) has introduced H.R. 831, the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013, to repeal Section 14(c) of the FLSA.  The National Federation of the Blind, along with a growing list of over sixty national and local cross-disability organizations, support the passage of H.R. 831 to responsibly repeal this discriminatory provision over a three-year period.
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> About the National Federation of the Blind
>  
> The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the oldest, largest, and most influential nationwide membership organization of blind people in the United States. Founded in 1940, the NFB advocates for the civil rights and equality of blind Americans, and develops innovative education, technology, and training programs to provide the blind and those who are losing vision with the tools they need to become independent and successful.
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